Southern  Branch 
of  the 

University  of  California 

Los  Angeles 


Form  L   1 


17 


This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below 


SEP   2  g   192) 
JUN  7       i<fc 

1929 


JAN  2'- 1930, 


29  t< 


' 


Form  L-9-15m-8,'26 


WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 


WARFARE    IN    THE 
HUMAN    BODY 

ESSAYS  ON  METHOD,  MALIGNITY, 
REPAIR    AND    ALLIED     SUBJECTS 


BY 

MORLEY   ROBERTS 


WITH    AN    INTRODUCTION    BY 

PROFESSOR   ARTHUR   KEITH 

M.D.,  F.R.C.S.,  F.R.S.,  ETC. 


NEW   YORK 

E.  P.  BUTTON   COMPANY 

68 1    FIFTH    AVENUE 


first  Published  in  1921 


ERRATA 

Page      3  line  5  from  bottom,  for  rater  read  rarer 

41     ,,  10,  for  predominately  re&d.  predmninantly 
,,    121     ,,  13,  for  hystoirlal  read  hyxte.roidal 

131     ,,  10  from  bottom,  for  aniwo-acidx  read  amino-acida 
,,    198     ,,    1,  iorcha  nc/e  aasuredly  read  change,  assured fi/ 
,   2t6      ,    7  from  bottom,  for  Spring  read  Summer 


v 


FOREWORD 

BY 

PROFESSOR  ARTHUR  KEITH,   F.R.S. 

AS  I  read  over  the  manuscript  pages  of  these  essays, 
by  my  friend  Morley  Roberts,  there  came  back  to  me 
the  memory  of  a  night  in  London,  when  I  set  out  from  a 
scientific  meeting  to  guide  a  provincial  colleague  to  his 
hotel  through  streets  obliterated  by  a  blinding  November 
fog.  The  way  was  familiar  to  me,  yet  in  the  end  the 
stranger  from  the  country  proved  the  better  guide,  for  it 
was  he  who  ultimately  took  us  straight  to  our  destination. 
By  the  mere  use  of  his  map-fed  imagination  my  friend  had 
mastered  the  details  of  London  better  than  I  had  done  after 
years  of  residence.  Imagination  with  him  had  turned  the 
dry  and  dusty  maps,  plans,  contour-lines  and  guide  books  of 
a  great  city  he  had  never  seen  into  a  living  reality,  in  which 
he  could  find  his  way  with  confidence,  and  even  offer  help 
to  befogged  citizens.  In  these  essays  by  Mr.  Morley  Roberts 
we  have  a  parallel  case.  He  has  not  lived,  toiled,  and 
earned  a  livelihood  in  any  one  of  the  multitude  of  quarters 
into  which  the  bewildering  City  of  Modern  Science  is 
sharply  divided.  Yet  by  the  sheer  force  of  his  imagination, 
one  which  is  at  once  intimate,  intuitive,  accurate,  and  vivid 


vi  FOREWORD 

he  has  absorbed  the  atmosphere  of  the  place,  become 
familiar  with  its  inhabitants,  their  ways  of  thought,  and 
their  industries  to  a  degree  which  is  rare  among  even  the 
most  experienced  natives  of  this  great  city.  Had  he  been 
merely  an  intelligent  visitor  to  their  strange  dwelling-place, 
one  who  had  wandered  through  its  docklands,  its  business 
quarters,  its  Smithfields,  its  Covent  Gardens,  its  Mayfairs, 
its  Kensingtons,  and  its  Hampsteads,  and  reported  faith- 
fully in  these  essays  what  he  had  heard  and  seen,  then  he 
would  have  accomplished  a  rare  feat.  But  he  has  done  more 
than  this  ;  he  is  a  serious  student  who  has  made  frequent 
journeys  to  the  city  of  science  in  search  of  explanations  to 
the  riddles  of  life,  and  has  brought  back  suggestions  and 
answers  which  should  obtain  the  ear  of  all  thinking  people, 
and  which  deserve  the  closest  scrutiny  from  men  of  science. 
I  look  on  these  essays  as  a  contribution  to  knowledge  of  an 
altogether  new  kind.  The  man  who  suggests  the  most 
likely  path  to  truth  stands  next  in  the  hierarchy  of  great- 
ness to  him  who  actually  finds  it. 

How  is  it  possible,  the  reader  of  these  essays  may  well 
ask,  that  one  who  has  been  known  these  thirty  years  past 
to  a  wide  circle  of  readers  as  a  writer  of  fiction,  can  know 
anything  concerning  the  secrets  of  life  and  of  disease  with 
which  men  of  science  are  not  already  familiar  ?  The 
explanation  is  not  far  to  seek.  As  a  writer  of  true  fiction 
it  was  Mr.  Morley  Roberts'  business  to  study  human 
nature  and  human  action,  and  to  grasp  the  conditions, 
under  which  millions  of  individuals  might  be  massed  in 
communities,  and  yet  remain  free  and  happy.  In  the 
body  of  the  healthy  living  animal,  where  billions  of  vital 


FOREWORD  vii 

units  are  massed  together  in  ordered  harmony,  Nature  has 
accomplished  this  miracle.  What  was  more  natural,  then, 
than  that  an  author  endowed  with  a  vast  share  of  'intel- 
lectual curiosity  and  gifted  with  the  diagnostic  acumen  of 
the  born  physician  should  seek  for  a  solution  of  his  diffi- 
culties in  the  workshops  of  men  of  science  ?  He  went  to 
them  at  first  as  a  student  of  sociology  in  search  of  facts 
which  would  help  him  to  understand  the  laws  which  should 
regulate  the  conduct  of  human  beings  living  under  the 
ever-changing  conditions  of  our  modern  civilization.  But  in 
time  it  began  to  dawn  upon  him,  as  he  watched  the  labours 
of  the  men  who  are  striving  to  unveil  the  mysteries  of  living 
matter  —  physiologists,  pathologists,  psychologists,  em- 
bryologists,  bacteriologists,  biochemists,  anthropologists, 
zoologists,  and  botanists — that  the  student  of  sociology 
had  at  least  as  much  to  give  as  to  receive.  He  found  that 
the  problems  which  face  the  students  of  that  most  marvel- 
lous of  living  organized  communities — the  healthy  human 
body — the  problems  of  disease  and  of  health,  of  malignancy, 
immunity,  inhibition,  heredity,  cell  division,  evolution, 
growth,  repair  and  old  age — had  their  parallels  and  analogues 
in  organized  human  societies.  He  therefore  commenced 
to  ascertain  how  far  the  obscure  phenomena  of  biology 
could  be  elucidated  by  applying  the  explanations  which  are 
familiar  to  students  of  social  phenomena.  Thus  it  comes 
about  that  in  these  essays  we  have  records  of  a  unique 
kind — records  made  by  a  layman  after  years  of  hard  think- 
ing and  close  observation  which  he  now  places  before  his 
professional  brethren  with  a  skilled  pen,  a  rare  wealth  of 
apt  simile,  using  always  the  diffident  and  modest  language 


riii  FOREWORD 

of  the  real  searcher  after  truth.     No  one  who  loves  that 
search  will  lay  this  book  down  unrewarded. 

Men  who  have  grown  grey  in  those  quarters  of  the  City 
of  Science,  which  are  devoted  to  the  service  of  medicine, 
are  accustomed  to  the  visits  of  strangers  of  diverse  types. 
They  have  seen  chemists  like  Pasteur  and  Lavoisier,  and 
clergymen  like  Stephen  Hales  and  Priestley,  force  their 
ways  into  their  workshops,  ultimately  revolutionizing 
their  industries.  They  are  also  familiar  with  the  newly 
fledged  student  of  first-aid,  who  breaks  his  way  through  the 
circle  of  spectators  surrounding  a  street  accident,  and 
brushing  aside  the  skilled  surgeon,  takes  charge  of  the  case. 
Occasionally,  too,  they  come  across  those  visitors  who,  letting 
their  imagination  rise  on  untrammelled  wing,  picture  for 
them  a  future  full  of  marvels.  In  Morley  Roberts  we  have  a 
visitor  of  a  new  kind — one  who  compels  his  imagination 
when  in  flight  to  observe  the  laws  of  gravity,  time,  and  space. 
Nay,  so  like  a  native  does  this  visitor  carry  himself,  that  for 
several  years  there  were  many  besides  myself  that  had  no 
suspicion  that  Morley  Roberts,  the  erudite  writer  on  medical 
and  allied  problems,  was  the  same  Morley  Roberts  who  is 
known  in  Bohemia  as  an  artist  of  noted  skill  with  pen 
and  brush.  In  these  essays  he  has  earned  for  himself  the 
freedom  of  the  City  of  Realities  or  Science. 

With  one  last  word  my  privileged  task  of  introducing 
the  reader  to  these  essays  is  finished.  Their  author  has 
drawn  large  drafts  on  the  Bank  of  Science  ;  I,  for  one,  am 
willing  to  endorse  his  bills. 

ARTHUR  KEITH. 


AUTHOR'S    PREFACE 

THE  questions  discussed  in  this  book  arose  originally  as 
side-issues  in  the  prosecution  of  studies  for  a  much 
larger  book,  to  be  entitled  Social  Physiology  and  Pathology, 
in  which  I  meant  to  deal  with  the  health  and  diseases 
of  social  organisms,  as  well  as  with  the  laws  underlying 
political  energy  as  it  seeks  blindly  to  adapt  societies  to  a 
changing  environment.  I  had  mapped  out  a  work,  more, 
I  own,  than  was  sufficient  for  a  lifetime,  in  which  inquiry 
was  to  be  made  in  the  order  and  failure  of  order  in  societies, 
their  well-being  and  their  disorders,  and  finally  discovered 
that  such  labour  demanded  a  considerable  knowledge  of 
several  sciences,  especially  that  of  pathology,  so  that  true 
distinctions  could  be  drawn  between  fatally  morbid  pro- 
cesses and  those  morbid  states  which  foreshadowed,  and 
indeed  foretold,  new  social  variations.  In  spite  of  the  un- 
happy fact  that  statesmen  and  politicians  of  all  kinds 
ignore  science,  it  seemed  to  me  that  such  a  book  might  at 
last  prove  useful  even  to  them  if  its  trend  were  understood, 
and  its  doctrines  appreciated,  by  a  few  critics.  Yet,  finding 
that  those  who  undertake  unprofessional  work  must  at 
least  subscribe  to  the  first  of  the  monastic  vows,  I  put  the 
project  aside  with  regret,  although  I  believe  that  much 
of  this  short  volume  will  indicate  to  those  interested  in  the 


x  AUTHOR'S  PREFACE 

complex  phenomena  of  sociology  many  conclusions  as  to 
social  diagnosis  which  only  extended  labour  could  make 
quite  clear.  Although  I  cannot  carry  out  the  labour 
originally  proposed,  such  investigations  as  I  have  been 
able  to  make  may  throw  a  useful  light  on  the  funda- 
mental principles  of  social  adaptation,  and  also  discover  and 
illuminate  a  number  of  vexed  questions  in  biology.  It 
would  be  ungrateful  of  me  if  I  did  not  acknowledge  that 
the  impulse  to  attempt  such  a  task  sprang,  not,  as  might 
possibly  be  imagined,  from  the  work  of  Herbert  Spencer, 
but  from  a  little-known  book  by  a  great  physician,  who 
never  received  his  full  meed  of  appreciation  as  a  teacher. 
I  refer  to  the  late  Dr.  Henry  Gawen  Sutton,  once  a  colleague 
of  Sir  Andrew  Clark's  at  the  London  Hospital,  whose 
Lectures  on  Pathology,  taken  down  by  an  ardent  student, 
contain  a  sounder  criticism  of  life  and  more  real  wisdom 
than  a  library  of  metaphysical  treatises.  His  pathology 
may,  indeed,  be  out  of  date,  but  the  knowledge  that  has 
passed  him  by  has  not  yet  reached  the  height  of  his  vision, 
since  his  intuition,  though  sometimes  curiously  and 
roughly  phrased,  often  condensed  into  five  words  the  life- 
time's thinking  of  a  true  philosopher. 

It  is  generally  supposed  that  any  one  who  is  outside 
the  circle  of  professional  investigation,  and  attempts  to 
enter  it  with  no  credentials,  does  so  at  the  peril  of  entire 
neglect  if  not  of  contumely.  On  this  point  I  can  only  say, 
and  I  do  so  with  gratitude,  that  the  encouragement  received 
from  most  of  those  best  qualified  to  speak  upon  the  subjects 
treated  has  been  most  generous,  while  the  exceptions  to  the 
general  rule  are  so  few  that  the  very  fact  of  their  existence 


AUTHOR'S  PREFACE  xi 

accentuates  the  kindly  and  helpful  attitude  of  the  great 
majority.  Even  in  the  cases  where  I  have  ventured  to 
differ  from  high  authorities  on  obscure  points  which  are 
still  unsettled,  I  have  found  them  ready  to  listen  and 
eager  to  discover  the  possible  value  of  any  suggestion. 

To  subjects  purely  scientific  I  have  thought  it  worth 
while  to  add  a  short  paper,  originally  published  in  Folk- 
lore, which  deals  with  the  Thargelian  Pharmakos.  The 
etymology  and  significance  of  the  word  Pharmakos, 
and  its  relations  to  magic  medicine,  are  very  obscure,  and 
any  possible  elucidation  of  its  meaning  should  be  of  interest 
to  such  modern  descendants  of  the  ancient  therapeutic 
magicians  as  practise  medicine  with  more  modesty  as 
well  as  with  more  success.  I  cannot  refrain  from  stating 
here  that  the  friend  mentioned  in  the  paper,  to  whom  I 
owed  the  knowledge  of  the  existence  of  the  Turkic  word 
vourmak,  was  the  late  Mr.  Max  Montesole,  whose  vast  stores 
of  linguistic  learning  were  always  open  to  those  who  could 
not  aspire  to  equal  his  own,  and  whose  death  no  one  who 
knew  him  will  cease  to  deplore.  With  this  acknowledgment 
of  gratitude  I  wish  to  combine  my  sincerest  thanks  for  help 
and  encouragement  to  such  men  of  science,  who  are 
happily  still  at  work,  as  Professor  W.  M.  Bayliss,  Professor 
E.  W.  MacBride,  Professor  J.  T.  Cunningham,  Professor 
Marcus  Hartog,  Dr.  Chalmers  Mitchell,  and  Professor 
Benjamin  Moore,  while  for  help  given  me  upon  special 
points  I  desire  to  add  to  these  the  names  of  Sir  John  Bland- 
Sutton,  Dr.  Lambert  Lack,  and  Mr.  Sampson  Handley.  In 
saying  so  much  I  by  no  means  imply  that  what  I  ventured 
to  put  forward  always  met  with  acceptance.  On  the 


xii  AUTHOR'S  PREFACE 

contrary,  as  may  easily  be  imagined,  it  often  encountered 
severe,  if  kindly,  criticism,  from  which  I  derived  the  greatest 
benefit,  even  though  it  did  not  in  some  cases  wholly  convince 
me.  Last  of  all,  but  assuredly  not  least,  I  must  thank 
Professor  Arthur  Keith,  whose  almost  unequalled  general 
knowledge  has  ever  been  at  the  service  of  all  interested  in 
science,  while  his  openness  of  mind  and  his  readiness  to 
consider  fresh  views,  whether  orthodox  or  the  reverse,  are 
as  well  known  as  they  are  remarkable  and  exemplary. 

MORLEY  ROBERTS. 


CONTENTS 


PAGJC 


FOREWORD  BY  PROF.  ARTHUR  KEITH,  F.R.S.  .         T 

AUTHOR'S  PREFACE      .            .            .            .  .be 

CHAr. 

I.  METHOD  IN  SCIENCE  .....         i 

II.  MALIGNANCY    .            .            .            .            .  .27 

III.  REPAIR  IN  EVOLUTION            .            .            .  .61 

IV.  INHIBITION  AND  THE  CARDIAC  VAGUS            .  .       93 
V.  THE  THEORY  OF  IMMUNITY    .            .            .  .127 

VI.  THE  CANNIBAL  IN  EVOLUTION            .            .  .     143 

VII.  HEREDITY  AND  ENVIRONMENT            .            .  .183 

VIII.  THE  ORIGIN  OF  THERAPEUTIC  BATHING        .  .     203 

IX.  THE  PHYSIOLOGY  OF  CONSCIOUSNESS.            .  .227 

X.  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  TRAINING  AND  ORGANIZATION      237 

XI.  THE  PHARMAKOS  AND  MEDICINE        .            .  .     255 

APPENDIX  A.     THE  INFECTION  THEORY  OF  CANCER  .     265 

APPENDIX  B.     THE  PERONEUS  TERTJUS    .             .  .     275 

APPENDIX  C.     MARCUS  TERENTIUS  VARRO              .  277 

INDEX             .             .             .             .             .             .  279 


WARFARE    IN    THE    HUMAN 
BODY 

CHAPTER   I 

METHOD  IN  SCIENCE 

THE  general  method  of  investigation,  suggestion, 
and  proof  used  in  this  volume  was  originally 
adopted  as  a  means  of  studying  social  disorders  and  dis- 
eases, for  if  society  is  an  organism  at  all,  on  whatever 
plane  of  development,  it  must  be  liable  to  disease,  and 
possess  a  physiology  not  remote  from  that  seen  at  work 
in  other  organisms  of  a  lowly  type.  As  the  work  progressed 
many  side-issues  presented  themselves,  and  it  was  seen  that 
if  the  notion  of  developmental  diseases  in  man  and  other 
animals  had  their  analogues  in  society,  by  which  we  could 
learn  the  nature  of,  and  possible  remedies  for,  social 
disorders,  these  should  present  real  analogies  with  bodily 
morbid  states.  Such  analogies  certainly  seemed  highly 
suggestive  in  the  physiology  of  both  kinds  of  organisms. 
If,  for  instance,  even  the  casual  study  of  cerebral  physio- 
logy and  neurology  threw  a  light,  however  dim  and  un- 
certain, upon  the  nature  of  politics  and  the  methods  by 
which  a  national  organism  is  directed  during  normal  or 
abnormal  circumstances  ;  if  the  nature  of  the  tropisms  or 
instincts  of  an  animal,  even  of  a  high  type,  showed  real 


2  WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

resemblances  to  the  instincts  of  a  race  ;  if  the  higher  associa- 
tion centres,  or  "  intellect,"  dealing  with  doubtful  issues 
over  the  pyramidal  tract,  showed  a  marked  likeness  to  the 
methods  of  trial  and  error  necessary  in  investigating  the 
entirely  unknown,  it  seemed  quite  probable  that  obscure 
phenomena  of  "  volition,"  instinct,  and  intellect  could  also 
be  approached  with  the  light  held  up  to  us  by  social  pheno- 
mena themselves.  On  advancing  further,  it  even  appeared 
possible,  with  such  a  conception  to  work  by,  that  organic 
diseases,  especially  those  of  development,  might  in  a 
measure  be  elucidated  by  the  careful  study  of  social  pheno- 
mena presenting  somewhat  similar  errors  of  growth  and 
failures  of  order.  It  may,  indeed,  be  said  that  this  method 
of  working  up  from  sociological  phenomena,  to  those  seen 
in  more  advanced  and  orderly  sciences,  promises  even  better 
results  than  the  reverse  process.  By  it  we  advance  from 
phenomena  among  which  we  live  and  act,  and  of  which 
we  are  a  part,  to  those  rendered  obscure  by  their  very 
approach  to  economy  of  energy  and  perfection  of  machinery. 
Whether  we  understand  society  or  not,  we  can  at  least 
draw  some  simple  conclusions  as  to  the  ways  in  which 
it  works,  and  if  it  is  granted,  as  a  temporary  hypothesis, 
that  the  principles  of  organization  are  similar  throughout 
nature,  it  is  obvious  investigation  may  show  that  the 
assumption  is  justified  by  the  light  thrown  upon  subjects 
with  which  we  are  less  familiar.  It  seems  certain  that 
sufficient  use  has  not  been  made  of  these  weapons  of 
research. 

To  criticize  accepted  methods  is  to  run  counter  both  to 
class  and  individual  prejudices.  This  is  true  in  science  as 
in  politics,  for  to  the  conservatism  which  revolts  against 
change,  there  is  added  the  fear  that  a  new  orientation  of 
thought  may  so  discount  accepted  values  as  to  disturb  the 


METHOD  IN  SCIENCE  3 

position  attained  by  the  orthodox.  Nevertheless,  from 
time  to  time  there  arises  the  necessity  of  revising  not  only 
accepted  doctrines,  but  also  the  methods  by  which  they 
are  reached.  It  seems  as  if  such  an  hour  had  now  come 
round,  for  in  many  of  the  sciences  the  accumulation  of  facts 
long  ago  passed  reasonable  limits,  while  those  who  have  an 
insatiable  passion  for  their  collection  display  little  energy 
in  putting  them  into  order.  Moreover,  they  appear  to 
resent,  or  at  the  least  to  deprecate,  any  such  attempt  on 
the  part  of  others.  According  to  many  "  now  "  is  never  the 
accepted  time  for  a  new  hypothesis,  although  true  method 
is  the  application  and  adaptation  of  the  whole  apparatus  of 
reasoning  to  any  given  problem.  Little  has  been  done  to 
elucidate  it,  but  it  surely  implies  the  use  of  every  weapon  of 
analysis  in  order  to  avoid  all  possible  waste  of  available 
energy.  For  any  advance  in  thought  implies  an  intelligent 
logical  use  of  foresight  and  surmise,  and  without  them 
science  must  become  at  last  a  mere  rubbish  heap.  Over- 
insistence  on  facts  and  perpetual  discouragement  of  think- 
ing atrophy  the  imagination,  without  which  the  most 
diligent  seeker  after  truth  must  presently  perish  in  the  pit 
he  has  digged  for  himself.  Such  resemble  a  man  who 
makes  bricks,  and  resents  the  architect  and  builder  using 
them.  This  revolt  against  acknowledged  logical  methods 
has  sometimes  had  its  justification,  but  with  the  general 
progress  of  knowledge  the  life  of  a  radically  unsound  hypo- 
thesis is  usually  a  very  short  one.  If  Herbert  Spencer's 
idea  of  a  tragedy  was  a  hypothesis  killed  by  a  fact,  such 
tragedies  must  grow  rater  if  it  is  recognized  that  know- 
ledge is  only  knowledge,  and  a  fact  only  a  fact,  when  both 
agree  with  what  is  certain  in  other  sciences,  and  contradict 
no  general  principles. 

The  evil  results  of  extreme  specialism,  combined  with  a 


4  WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

refusal  to  appeal  to  such  principles,  can  be  seen  in  almost 
every  branch  of  scientific  work.  In  private  a  professor  of 
pathology  may,  and  too  often  does,  pour  scorn  upon  the 
labours  of  the  physiologist,  which  looks  much  as  if  he 
believed  that  the  right  method  of  teaching  shipbuilding 
was  to  study  wrecks  upon  the  beach.  Again,  the  physio- 
logist, aware  though  he  be  of  the  pathologist's  failing, 
is  yet  apt  to  take  a  similar  view  as  regards  biology,  while 
the  biologist  himself,  whose  work  should  necessitate  an 
appreciation  of  all  that  appertains  to  all  life,  completes  the 
vicious  circle  by  ignoring  what  has  been  done  by  students  of 
disease.  So  much  cannot  be  denied  by  those  even  slightly 
acquainted  with  scientific,  and  especially  medical,  habits  of 
thought.  And  yet,  in  spite  of  this,  there  are  those  who 
know  that  science  cannot  be  so  divided,  and  that  none,  who 
aspires  to  more  than  a  hodman's  work,  is  properly  equipped 
without  a  general  knowledge  of  all  the  sciences  related  to 
his  own.  This  may  seem  a  hard  saying ;  but  it  proposes 
no  more  than  should  be  attainable  by  those  with  imagina- 
tion and  intellectual  curiosity,  and  it  admits,  even  pre- 
supposes, that  he  must  be  as  ignorant  of  special  details  in 
such  sciences  as  his  fellow- workers  must  be  of  his  own. 

It  is  by  co-ordination  of  knowledge  that  advances  are 
made.  Yet  it  is  common  to  sneer  at  the  very  word  "  co- 
ordination." It  may  be  true  that  the  solitary  pioneer,  or 
specialist,  not  seldom  hits  upon  precious  facts.  But  he 
more  often  shares  the  fate  of  the  ignorant  prospector  who, 
by  ignoring  geology,  wastes  his  labour  and  dies  in  a  wilder- 
ness where  no  gold  can  be  found.  The  proper  method  for 
any  scientific  man  is  to  employ  all  knowledge  whatsoever, 
in  order  to  attain  such  a  degree  of  insight  into  the  value 
of  others'  observations  as  well  as  his  own  as  to  be  able  to 
use  and  test  both.  To  grasp  general  conclusions  in  what 


METHOD  IN  SCIENCE  5 

we  know,  and  to  ignore  them  in  what  we  are  ignorant  of,  is 
intellectual  anarchism. 

It  may  be  said  that  every  one  admits  that  general 
laws  apply  in  all  things,  and  that  to  insist  on  the  fact  is 
both  otiose  and  absurd.  A  belief,  however,  may  produce 
small  results  if  it  is  not  put  into  practice.  Every  one,  of 
course,  recognizes  that  nothing  whatever  occurs  anywhere 
which  can  contradict  the  laws  of  energetics.  And  yet 
vitalism  flourishes.  Almost  all  will  agree  that  chemistry 
is  capable  of  becoming  in  time  an  exact  science,  and  while 
yet  inexact,  has  general  laws  which  some  day  must  be  shown 
to  exist,  even  in  the  realm  of  what  those,  who  wish  to  avoid 
the  connotational  pitfalls  of  the  word  "  mind,"  may  be 
permitted  to  call  "  mentation."  But,  nevertheless,  many 
are  prone  to  argue  that  conclusions  reached  in  sociology, 
for  instance,  can  have  no  meaning  for  a  physiologist, 
biologist,  chemist,  or  physicist.  Though  general  laws  are 
in  action  through  all  nature,  their  opinion  is  that  any 
argument  founded  upon  them  is  an  argument  from  analogy, 
and  a  mere  illustration.  Resting,  as  they  believe  securely, 
on  the  absurd  dictum  that  it  is  dangerous  to  argue  from 
analogy,  they  refuse  to  draw  any  conclusion,  even  a  ten- 
tative one,  by  its  use,  being  ignorant  of  the  value  placed 
on  such  reasoning  by  a  logician  like  John  Stuart  Mill,  and 
forgetful  that  analogy  is  pure,  if  incomplete,  induction. 
For  it  can  only  be  built  on  facts. 

The  bulk  of  this  book  was  written,  and  the  suggested 
methods  employed,  before  I  became  aware  that  in  one  place, 
at  least,  Herbert  Spencer  had  suggested  a  way  in  which 
sociological  problems  might  give  clues  to  the  elucidation 
of  physiological  problems.  I  may,  perhaps,  be  excused  for 
not  having  read  his  paper  on  "  Transcendental  Physiology  " 
till  lately.  Indeed,  a  great  deal  of  his  physiological  know- 


6     WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

ledge  seems  inadequate  even  for  his  day,  and  perhaps  shows 
signs  that  the  facts,  or  supposed  facts,  were  found  for  him 
by  assistants,  and  never  properly  considered.  Whether  this 
is  true  or  not,  he  did  suggest  that  we  might  not  only  work 
forward  from  the  economy  of  the  animal  to  the  social 
organism,  but  that,  in  selected  cases,  analogies  drawn  from 
the  body  politic  might  sometimes  be  used  to  elucidate 
physiological  problems.  He  says  :  "  Hints  may  be  ex- 
pected if  nothing  more.  And  thus  we  venture  to  think 
that  the  Inductive  Method,  usually  employed  alone  by 
most  physiologists,  may  not  only  derive  important  assist- 
ance from  the  Deductive  Method,  but  may  further  be 
supplemented  by  the  Sociological  Method."  He  does  not 
seem  to  have  suggested  elsewhere  that  much  more  than 
hints  were  to  be  looked  for,  or  that  the  method  might  be 
employed  not  only  in  physiology,  but  also  in  biology  and 
pathology.  In  no  place  can  I  find  it  said  that  it  might 
prove  of  assistance  in  discovering  how  general  principles 
worked  in  any  science  whatsoever,  if  each  problem  were 
worked  backwards  and  forwards  from  one  science  to 
another. 

There  is  no  need  to  go  deeply  into  the  question  of  ana- 
logical reasoning.  It  is  sufficient  to  point  out  that,  used 
with  caution,  it  is  the  most  rapidly  fruitful  form  of  all 
ratiocination.  Maine  called  it,  "in  the  study  of  juris- 
prudence, the  most  valuable  of  instruments,"  even  when  he 
uttered  a  caution  against  its  premature  employment. 
For  any  aseful  analogy  must  show  sufficient  points  of  com- 
mon likeness  between  two  sets  of  observed  facts  to  suggest 
that  a  general  law  rules  in  both.  A  true  analogy  is  not 
merely  a  fanciful  likeness,  such  as  may  be  made  out  of  one 
point.  Although  Mill  wrote  :  "  There  is  no  analogy,  however 
faint,  which  may  not  be  of  the  utmost  value  in  suggesting 


METHOD  IN  SCIENCE  7 

experiments  or  observations  that  may  lead  to  more  general 
conclusions,"  there  is  no  need  to  push  it  to  an  absurd 
extreme,  as  Herbert  Spencer  himself  did,  when  he  endorsed 
Liebig's  comparison  of  blood  corpuscles,  as  a  circulating 
medium,  to  money.  But  from  one  point  of  likeness  we  may 
proceed  to  two  or  three,  or  as  many  as  we  will,  until  there 
is  complete  identity  in  all  essentials.  To  dismiss  an 
analogy,  in  which  there  are  many  points  of  resemblance,  as 
pure  fancy  is  unwise,  to  say  the  least  of  it,  since  it  stimulates 
the  imagination  in  the  liveliest  way.  Most  advances  in 
thought  are  made  by  the  imaginative,  who  yet  hold  steadily 
to  the  view  that  the  most  ingenious  hypothesis  cannot 
become  theory  unless  it  is  in  accordance  with  the  greater 
general  laws  of  the  more  inclusive  sciences,  and  at  last 
enables  us  to  prophesy  about  unknown  phenomena,  and 
to  put  into  order  disconnected  facts.  Used  in  this  way 
the  discovery  of  suggestive  analogies  is  the  parent  of  real 
progress,  and  it  ought  not  to  be  necessary  to  say  so.  If  it 
were  not  necessary  we  should  see  the  method  used,  and 
students,  young  or  old,  would  not  be  so  greatly  burdened 
with  mere  isolated  observations. 

If,  then,  we  admit  that  general  laws  are  everywhere  the 
same  in  their  working,  however  much  obscured  by  the  com- 
plexities of  the  less  inclusive  sciences,  and  allow  that 
analogies  tried  by  such  laws  are  a  legitimate  field  for  the 
scientific  imagination,  we  must  conclude  that  observed 
sequences  in  one  science  ought  to  be  discoverable  in  all 
others.  And  if  certain  sequences  are  clear  in  one  and 
obscure  in  another,  while  there  are  still  sufficient  points  of 
likeness  to  suggest  a  like  kind  of  explanation  in  the  obscure 
set,  we  may  legitimately  conclude  that  we  are  face  to  face 
with  the  same  general  laws. 

To  illustrate  such  points  is  not  altogether  easy,  since 


8  WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

their  comprehension  depends  entirely  upon  a  fairly  adequate 
apparatus  in  more  sciences  than  one.  This  is  not  common, 
and  the  very  possession  of  such  knowledge  seems  to  render 
its  owner  suspect  in  the  eyes  of  the  exclusive  specialist. 
It  is  easy  for  him  to  show  that  upon  recondite  and  very 
special  points  no  one  but  himself  can  be  sufficiently 
informed.  But  when  we  reflect  that  on  these  very  points 
few  specialists  agree,  though  they  are  at  one  on  many 
general  principles,  we  can  afford  to  discount  such  criticism. 
It  is  illegitimate  to  call  any  one  a  sciolist  because  he  is  not 
conversant  with  every  obscure  and  debatable  point,  since 
the  real  weakness  of  the  sciolist  is  eagerness  to  insist  on 
small  points,  and  to  fail  in  the  grasp  of  great  ones.  Without 
demanding  of  men  of  science  any  general  philosophical 
theory,  we  may  still  ask  them  to  admit  that  it  is  the  greatest 
privilege  of  any  worker,  when  surveying  the  whole  field  of 
knowledge,  to  discern  in  it  real  likenesses.  It  has  been 
said  that  the  highest  type  of  intellect  is  that  which  discovers 
likenesses,  while  the  second  order  is  apt  to  insist  upon 
differences.  If  this  is  so  it  must  be  admitted  that  the  highest 
type  is  not  common.  To  hold  the  balance  between  rash 
generalization  and  a  refusal  to  generalize  at  all  is  not  easy, 
and  it  may  be  supposed  that  the  qualities  which  enable 
any  one  to  do  so  can  seldom  be  found  in  those  deeply 
committed  to  specialism.  Yet  the  ranging  of  phenomena 
under  superior  headings,  which  is  real  "  explanation,"  cannot 
be  achieved  unless  likenesses  are  seen  where  none  appear 
on  the  surface.  The  history  of  science  shows  that  any 
new  discovery  or  generalization  has  usually  been  met  with 
hostility  by  the  best  informed  on  special  facts.  If  the  work 
of  Harvey  had  been  dependent  for  acceptance  on  the  vote 
of  specialists  it  would  assuredly  have  been  rejected  And 
if  it  is  now  said  that  the  phenomena  seen  in  any  society, 


METHOD  IN  SCIENCE  9 

considered  as  a  closed  system  or  organism,  can  throw  light 
upon  special  points  of  physiology,  pathology,  and  biology, 
or  even  on  debatable  points  in  physics,  such  a  statement 
will  not  easily  meet  with  assent.  But  the  fact  remains 
that  those  who  reject  it  still  admit  that  the  laws  of  physics 
rule  everywhere,  and  that  the  doctrines  of  energetics  can  be 
seen  in  whatever  place  work  is  being  done.  To  admit  so 
much,  and  refuse  to  see  that  in  all  phenomena  there  must  be 
discoverable  essential  points  of  likeness,  is  a  contradiction. 
And  to  say,  even  if  there  are  real  likenesses  which  enable 
us  to  use  such  a  method  as  a  key  to  discovery,  that  the 
time  is  not  yet  come,  or  the  knowledge  acquired,  for  such 
an  organon  to  be  used,  is  simply  an  assertion  without 
proof.  To  go  on  merely  accumulating  facts,  and  we  must 
remember  that  no  "  fact  "  is  a  fact  until  it  is  made  part 
of  a  whole,  is  after  all  labourer's  work,  and  within  the  power 
of  any  one  with  diligence.  We  may  reflect  curiously  on  the 
truth  that  the  national  neglect  of  science  is  again  repeated 
by  many  men  of  science  themselves  when  they  refuse  to 
recognize  the  place  of  fresh  thought  in  their  work,  or,  by 
reason  of  their  conservatism,  place  more  than  reasonable 
difficulties  in  the  way  of  those  who  try  to  co-ordinate  their 
observations. 

The  logical  method  here  advocated,  if  it  has  its  dangers, 
is  of  peculiar  suggestiveness.  To  apply  observations  in  a 
well-known  science  to  one  in  a  state  of  less  order,  of  which 
the  genera]  laws  seem  still  unknown,  requires,  it  would 
seem,  less  skill  than  the  art  of  selecting  certain  points  in 
the  obscurer  study,  which  show  that  some  general  law  is  at 
work,  and  using  them  to  solve  problems  in  the  more 
advanced  science.  To  put  this  as  clearly  as  possible,  it 
may  be  said  that  while  sociologists  need  find  no  difficulty 
in  applying  with  success  the  analogies  of  bodily  disorders, 


10     WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

pathologists,  without  a  special  logical  apparatus,  will  easily 
go  astray  in  using  social  phenomena  as  a  guide  to  the  ex- 
planation of  disease.  But  used  with  care,  the  method  may 
have  great  results.  We  are  not  confined  to  applying  it  to 
physiology  alone,  nor  need  we  seek  real  analogies  in  nothing 
else  than  the  social  organism.  If  we  get  rid  of  the  artificial 
barriers  between  all  the  sciences,  we  can  use  biology  to  ex- 
plain pathology  and  pathology  to  explain  biology,  provided 
nothing  assumed  contradicts  chemical  or  physical  general- 
izations. Such  a  process  of  regression  may  seem  as  obscure 
as  it  will  appear  unsound  to  the  over-cautious,  but  it  is 
possible  that  those  who  are  weary  of  the  prevalent  method 
of  seeking  to  explain  the  facts  of  any  science  within  its 
own  boundaries,  such  as  is  seen  in  bacteriologists  without 
any  zeal  for  colloidal  chemistry,  will,  perhaps,  be  inclined  to 
welcome  any  extension  of  Spencer's  suggestion.  To  choose 
short  illustrations  is  not  easy,  and  the  best  I  know  are 
supplied  in  the  body  of  this  book.  In  this  place  I  shall 
endeavour  to  use  the  method  more  as  a  means  of  suggestion 
than  a  method  of  proof,  and  shall  apply  it  briefly  to  mitosis, 
budding,  the  nature  of  the  cell-nucleus,  and  to  other 
problems  of  heredity. 

When  dealing  so  briefly  with  the  inter-relations  of  the 
sciences,  it  is  impossible  to  do  more  than  make  suggestions. 
Yet,  even  at  length,  it  would  not  always  be  easy  to  show 
the  pathologist  that  he  should  recognize  what  help  physio- 
logy may  give  him.  I  have  been  assured  by  a  very 
great  physiologist  that  his  notion  of  pathology  was  that 
it  tended  to  death,  and  need  not  be  taken  into  account.  He 
had  not  considered  the  possible  value  of  repair  in  evolution, 
in  spite  of  the  obvious  truth  that  in  all  branches  of  life, 
thought,  and  mechanical  invention,  breakdowns  lead  to 
new  contrivances.  The  biologist,  too,  may  refuse,  and  indeed 


METHOD  IN  SCIENCE  11 

does  refuse,  to  consider  the  possibility  of  social  phenomena 
throwing  light  upon  the  problems  of  heredity  mentioned 
above,  and  the  transmission  of  acquired  or  altered  char- 
acteristics. It  is  now  orthodox  in  biology  to  adopt  a 
modified  Weismannism,  and  no  one  would  be  more  dis- 
inclined to  ask  whether,  in  the  evolution  of  societies  and 
their  heredity,  we  can  find  anything  to  support  or  under- 
mine the  germ-plasm  theory,  than  an  orthodox  believer. 
Nor  would  he  allow  us  to  ask  whether  there  are  sociological 
phenomena  which  suggest  that  altered  characteristics  can 
be  transmitted.  Before  answering,  or  attempting  to  answer, 
either  question  as  an  example  of  method,  it  may  be  pointed 
out  that,  even  with  the  example  of  J.  T.  Cunningham's  work 
on  hormones  before  them,  most  of  the  unorthodox  biolo- 
gists are  almost  as  neglectful  of  the  help  in  the'elucidation  of 
evolutionary  problems  given  them  by  physiologists,  who 
have  worked  on  the  secretions  and  catalytic  functions 
of  the  endocrines,  as  their  orthodox  brethren.  In  speaking 
thus  of  the  biologist  it  must  not  be  assumed  that  he  alone 
is  indifferent  to  other  work.  The  orthodox  school  of  psycho- 
logists, directly  descended  from  the  introspectional  philo- 
sopher and  the  theologian,  are  equally  opposed  to  the  bio- 
logical school  of  sociologists.  We  can,  in  fact,  find  no  school 
without  such  "  idols."  In  attempting  what  is,  perhaps, 
the  vain  attempt  of  their  destruction,  the  most  simple 
example  I  can  choose  to  illustrate  the  method  advocated  is 
what  I  believe  to  be  a  real  analogy  between  the  problems 
of  heredity  in  biology  and  sociology.  I  may  therefore 
be  permitted  to  use  a  portion  of  an  unfinished  paper  on 
"  The  Possible  Mechanism  of  Transmission,"  with  a  view 
to  demonstrating  anew  the  obvious  fact  that,  since  general 
laws  do  obtain  in  the  universe,  their  particular  application 
in  all  cases  must  have  essential  points  of  resemblance. 


12  WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

The  function  of  the  endocrine  glands,  in  their  relation 
to  general  heredity,  has  been  studied  far  too  little.     It  is 
true  that  Keith  has  explained  popularly  their  probable 
r61e  with  regard  to  racial  types,  but  generally  speaking 
the  hasty  generalization  of  Weismann,  upheld  by  many 
whose  record  with  regard  to  the  dangers  of  premature 
hypothesis  might,  perhaps,  have  safeguarded  them,  has  been 
a  deadening  influence  upon  biological  speculation.     And, 
indeed,  even  those  who  have  studied  environment  in  the 
belief  that  direct  adaptation  occurs,  have  been  too  apt  to 
speak  of  its  influence  in  general  terms,  rather  than  to 
inquire  into  the  means  by  which  it  modifies  an  organism. 
There  seems  to  be  no  biologist  who  has  properly  grasped  the 
whole  possibilities  of  catalysts  as  "  tools  "  or  instruments 
by  which  the  functions  associated  with  protoplasm  can 
be  activated,  increased  and,  in  certain  cases,  inhibited,  or 
has  laid  stress  on  the  way  in  which  all  that  they  "  create  " 
can  once  more  give  rise  to  other  like  but  more  complex 
instruments.     Instead  of  regarding  protoplasm  as  modified 
by  the  tools  it  employs,  we  hear  of  different  kinds  of  pro- 
toplasm.    The  very  expression  is  an  unverified  hypothesis, 
and  ignores  all  that  has  been  done  on  catalytic  action  by 
the   physiologists.      Such   assumptions   differ   very   little 
from  those  made  by  the  vitalists  who  explain  life  by  vitalism, 
and  vitalism  by  life.     But  when  it  is  seen  that  proto- 
plasm may,  and  actually  does,  alter  in  accordance  with  the 
non-living  organic  tools  it  uses,  just  as  races  differ  in  accord- 
ance with  their  "  tools  "   or  catalysts,  it  seems  obvious 
enough  that  varying  organic  phenomena  follow  each  other 
in  accordance  with  the  original  catalytic  tools  employed, 
which,  in  due  order,  are  specialized  by  embryonic  or  highly 
adapted  glands  such  as  the  endocrines.     For,  as  some  may 
be  lost,  so  new  ones  can  be  acquired,  and  some  again  can 


METHOD  IN  SCIENCE  13 

be  modified  in  changing  internal  or  external  environments. 
Without  the  help  of  chemistry  and  physiology  such  a  con- 
ception could  hardly  have  been  reached,  though  a  realistic, 
not  verbal,  interpretation  of  Weismannism  might  have  led 
to  the  view  that  "  determinants  "  were  catalytic  in  nature. 
Since  we  now  recognize  such  a  morphogenetic  character  of 
catalysts  and  hormones,  we  need  assume  no  other  instru- 
ments until  it  is  shown  definitely  that  they  do  not  and 
cannot  satisfy  the  equation  of  life.  If  biologists  had  not 
ignored  pathology  by  following  Darwin's  lead  blindly  when 
he  assumed,  without  a  shadow  of  proof,  that  unfavourable 
variations  must  be  without  effect  on  evolution,  they  might 
have  inquired  eagerly  into  the  causes  of  disease,  and  have 
found  that  much  of  it  must  inevitably  be  attributed  to 
factors,  or  the  want  of  them,  originally  taken  up  from  the 
environment.  The  simplest  example  is,  perhaps,  that  of 
iron,  and  the  latest  recognized  that  of  accessory  food  factors, 
fat  or  water  soluble. 

If  then  the  success  or  failure  of  morphogenesis  is  to  be 
attributed  to  such  "  tools  "  employed  in  a  particular  ener- 
gizing field  of  the  environment,  it  is  easy  to  imagine,  and 
even  to  prove,  that  they  must  go  over  in  the  sperm  or  egg- 
cell,  or  be  re-acquired  from  the  yolk,  or  from  the  parent 
during  gestation.  Darwin's  pangenes  can  thus  be  trans- 
lated into  the  language  of  hereditary  morphogenetic 
catalysts. 

Such  a  statement  leads  to  an  inquiry  concerning  the 
nucleus  of  a  cell.  To  what  extent  do  biologists  believe  that 
it  is  alive  ?  They  write  of  the  nucleo-plasm  as  if  it  were, 
but  all  the  physical  phenomena  of  mitosis  suggest  that  it  is 
not  of  the  complex  molecular  structure  furnished  with 
reversible  catalysts  dominating  and  directing  anabolic  and 
catabolic  processes  which  we  call  "  life,"  but  that  it  is  com- 


14  WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

posed  of  chemical  substances,  which  are  determinants  of 
future  morphogenesis.  Such  a  view  is  in  keeping  with 
Darwin's  pangenes,  and  does  not  contradict  Hartog's 
physical  mito-kinetic  interpretation  of  the  mitotic  cell- 
fields. 

If,  then,  by  following  the  suggestions  of  chemistry  and 
physiology,  rather  than  by  relying  purely  on  limited  experi- 
ment and  the  microscope,  we  finally  rid  biology  of  the  view 
that  there  is  true  nucleo-plasm,  and  proceed  on  the  assump- 
tion that  the  nucleus  is  a  varying  vacuole,  or  "  tool-shop," 
and  food  store-house  in  which  catalysts,  or  determinants, 
or  activators,  are  kept,  and  from  which  they  may  be  drawn 
by  various  physical  causes,  use  is  being  made  of  at  least 
three  sciences,  or  four  if  we  include  physics,  and  we  seem 
on  a  path  likely  to  lead  to  result.  At  least  we  shall  not 
ignore  the  environment,  since  it  is,  and  must  be,  the  field 
from  which  all  morphogenetic  materials  were  originally 
drawn,  however  complex  they  appear  when  used,  com- 
bined, and  specialized  by  special  organs,  themselves  the 
earlier  results  of  similar  catalysts  working  in  the  embryo. 

Yet  another  science  may  be  used  to  help  towards  a 
possible  demonstration.  An  illustration  is  not  a  proof, 
but,  as  suggested  before,  when  it  contains  a  larger  number 
of  points  of  likeness  it  ceases  to  be  a  mere  illustration. 
The  observed  phenomena  then  seem  peculiarly  related  to 
each  other,  and  if  the  illustration  deals  with  familiar 
phenomena  the  previously  inexplicable  problem  may  have 
an  intense  light  thrown  upon  it.  It  was  such  considerations, 
combined  with  the  scientific  postulate  that  all  biologic 
phenomena,  on  whatever  plane  of  development,  follow  the 
same  laws,  which  led  me  to  seek  in  sociology  and  social 
life  some  real  illustrations  of  budding  and  mitosis,  being 
convinced  that  if  found,  they  would  be  of  a  similar  nature. 


METHOD  IN  SCIENCE  15 

It  seemed  to  me  that  such  biologic  parallels  were  to  be 
discovered  in  the  phenomena  of  colonization,  especially  in 
examples  of  definite  emigration  parties  in  different  vessels. 
The  departure  of  a  portion  of  the  community  carrying  its 
own  tools  and  weapons  is  obviously  a  real  illustration  of 
budding,  and  indicates  far  more  than,  on  a  casual  view,  is 
seen  upon  the  surface.  Provided  the  new  environment  is 
not  very  different  from  the  old  one,  the  new  civilization  will 
follow  closely  on  that  of  the  old.  But  when  the  environ- 
ment changes,  as  new  materials  are  discovered,  the  form  will 
and  must  change.  A  colonial  "  bud  "  which  discovers  iron 
and  makes  weapons  and  tools  from  it  will,  in  accordance 
with  its  environment,  and  the  stresses  of  life,  become  either 
an  agricultural,  a  hunting,  or  a  fighting  people.  If  tools 
are  catalysts,  and  catalysts  are  tools,  we  are  surely  in  posses- 
sion of  some  hint  as  to  the  mechanism  of  the  transmission 
of  altered  and  acquired  characteristics,  and  all  the  allied 
sciences  have  lent  their  aid  to  the  conception. 

It  is,  however,  in  another  illustration  that  we  can  best 
discern  the  meaning  and  mechanism  of  mitosis.  What  can 
be  a  better  illustration  of  an  extruded  zygote  than  a  ship 
carrying  a  party  of  males  and  females,  and  furnished  with 
all  the  tools  familiar  to  the  mother-country  in  order  to 
cope  with  what  is  expected  to  furnish  a  suitable,  and  fairly 
like,  environment  ?  In  such  a  vessel  we  have  the  human 
protoplasm  (on  its  plane  probably  no  more  complex  than  a 
"  unit  of  life  "),  and  a  definite  provision  of  tools  and  weapons 
for  carrying  on  the  communal  life  of  the  new  unit.  On 
arrival  at  its  destination  we  observe  at  once  the  influence  of 
the  environment.  It  may  be  deadly,  the  "  cell "  may  die,  it 
maybe  wrecked,  or  it  may  never  proceed  to  further  develop- 
ment and  division.  But  supposing  "the  environment  is 
good,  the  new  community,  with  the  help  of  its  tools,  will 


16     WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

repeat  in  all  essentials  the  life- history  of  the  parent.  If, 
on  the  other  hand,  it  is  not  so  like  the  mother-country  in 
agricultural  prospects,  but  more  fruitful  in  game,  we  should 
get  a  hunting  community.  The  iron  ploughs  would  be 
turned  into  spears.  Furthermore,  we  must  remark  that 
the  nature  of  the  new  organism  depends  very  largely  on 
what  was  in  the  ship,  and  its  nature.  If  unfertilized,  i.e, 
without  men,  it  must  either  die  or  get  fertilized  by  native 
males.  In  that  case  the  "  tools,"  or  catalysts  of  both 
parties  would  be  utilized  according  to  the  common  ability 
of  both.  There  would  arise  a  different  species,  and  a 
further  budding  or  colonization  would  carry  away  a  new 
set  of  morphogenetic  materials. 

Provided,  however,  that  the  ship  was  "  fertilized,"  an 
iron  or  wooden  ship  might  develop  two  different  kinds  of 
civilization,  especially  if  they  were  wrecked,  and  the  tools 
of  mitotic  material  lost.  But  without  disaster  a  state  would 
develop  in  accordance  with  its  tools  and  seeds  and  weapons. 
There  is  no  need  to  be  led  away  from  the  physical  side  of 
the  problem  to  that  complex  of  physics  and  bio-chemistry 
which  we  call  psychology.  The  knowledge  and  traditions 
of  the  colonists  are  its  protoplasmic  character,  which  again 
has  been  determined,  and  is,  the  result  of  long  ages  of  other 
tools.  That  is  to  say,  the  character  is  the  tools  used  plus 
the  protoplasmic  energy. 

On  this  analysis  we  see  how  transmission  of  un- 
altered characters  takes  place,  and  even  the  Wies- 
mannists  may  agree.  But,  furthermore,  we  observe  that 
race  characteristics  and  habits  and  customs  are  modified 
by  the  environment,  and  that  a  new  metal,  a  new 
cereal  or  root  or  fruit,  may  not  only  bring  about 
modifications,  but  be  transmitted.  Some  real  thing, 
tool  or  catalyst,  is  transmitted  and  carried  away 


METHOD  IN  SCIENCE  17 

when  further  budding  or  mitosis  occurs.  Without  push- 
ing these  examples  to  extremes,  it  is  worth  showing 
that  phenomena,  strictly  and  curiously  analogous  with 
mitosis  may  occur.  If  a  new  colony  gets  too  big  for  its 
environment,  and  is  "  determined  "  (that  is,  driven  by  cir- 
cumstances to  enforced  behaviour)  to  divide,  what  then 
happens  ?  Stock  is  taken  of  the  weapons,  the  tools,  the 
food.  It  is  conceivable  that  all  the  tools  must  be  assembled 
and  divided.  We  should  in  such  a  case  get  something  like 
a  mitotic  pattern.  It  would  be  rude  and  rough  compared 
with  patterns  in  cells,  just  as  cell  patterns  are  probably 
rude  and  rough  compared  with  an  experimental  electro- 
static pattern  of  mito-kinesis,  where  pure  physical  pheno- 
mena are  seen  undisturbed.  And  yet  it  would  be  pattern 
in  so  far  as  it  was  a  new  special  order.  Some  celestial 
observer,  with  a  powerful  microscope,  would  see  peculiar 
phenomena  of  arrangement  and  division,  not  to  be  under- 
stood or  even  guessed  at  until  actual  division  occurred. 
The  human  "  plasm  "  would  divide  :  the  "  nuclear  " 
matter  would  be  parted,  and  there  would  presently  be  two 
organisms  where  there  had  previously  been  but  one. 

And  once  more  the  environment  would  play  its  part. 
Some  new  discovery  might  make  a  new  race.  After  genera- 
tions it  is  conceivable  that  such  a  race,  furnished  with  all 
sorts  of  acquired  means  and  methods,  might  find  its 
ancestors  as  barbarian  as  we  find  many  primitive  races 
and,  in  its  turn,  would  send  forth  colonies  to  acquire 
further  characteristics,  or  to  lose  those  which  it  pos- 
sessed, and  revert  to  the  savage  or  embryonic  state. 

If,  as  Mill  declared,  an  analogy  is  an  incomplete 
induction,  its  incompleteness  can  be  compensated 
for  by  the  discovery  of  other  analogies,  so  that  in 
the  end  we  approach,  and  may  practically  reach,  com- 


18  WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

plete  induction.  I  am  little  concerned  with  the  techni- 
cal logic  of  this  or  any  other  argument,  since  school 
logic  is  but  the  skeleton  of  living  reasoning.  Live 
reasoning  is  the  art  of  persuasion,  and  usually  consists  in 
the  choice  of  examples  which  reinforce  each  other  so  that 
a  contradictory  conclusion  seems  improbable.  The  view 
taken  as  to  the  functions  in  development  of  catalysts, 
or  tools,  organic  or  inorganic,  can  obviously  be  supported 
by  the  reverse  phenomena  of  involution,  disease,  and  death. 
If  growth  depends  on  the  embryonic  possession,  and  later 
differentiation  or  acquirement  of  catalysts,  old  age  and 
decay  as  obviously  depend  on  an  increasing  failure  to  manu- 
facture, acquire,  or  use  them.  According  to  Child,  if  I 
interpret  him  rightly,  degeneration  commences  at  birth,  or 
even  earlier.  As  shown  by  the  decreasing  heart-rate, 
there  is  a  gradual  slackening  of  metabolism  possibly  due  to 
the  strain  on  the  organism  of  manufacturing  its  own  com- 
plex catalysts,  and  dealing  with  its  own  food.  Little  by 
little  the  strain  increases,  until  the  organism  shows  signs 
of  failure,  and  there  is  a  loss  of  catalytic  balance  with 
concomitant  loss  of  activity.  We  have  to  account  for  the 
diversion  of  available  energy,  and  to  say  no  more  than  that 
it  fails  naturally  is  no  explanation.  Opotherapy,  or  the 
exhibition  of  activating  or  inhibiting  drugs,  may  prolong 
the  drama ;  but  the  end  comes  when  the  body  can  no  longer 
be  spurred  on  by  what  it  makes  or  ingests. 

There  is  also  in  the  phenomena  of  a  serious  or  fatal 
disease  an  inverted  parallelism  to  those  of  growth  and  life. 
Infection,  or  "  shock,"  whatever  that  may  be,  affects  the 
functions  of  every  tissue  and  gland,  and  many  classic  cases 
of  "  fever  "  may  be  mapped  out  by  symptoms  caused,  not 
by  the  infection,  but  by  prematurely  vitiated  secretions, 
and  the  consequent  loss  of  catalytic  power  to  deal  with  the 


METHOD  IN  SCIENCE  19 

disease,  with  nutriment  itself,  or  with  excretions.  It  seems, 
then,  that  in  birth,  life,  disease,  and  death  itself,  what  we 
witness  is  the  use,  acquisition,  or  failure  and  gradual  loss  of 
"  acquirements." 

When  we  consider  that  in  all  inductive  arguments  what- 
ever we  can  only  attain  a  high  degree  of  probability,  a 
proposition  put  very  clearly  by  Jevons,  it  assuredly  seems 
that  catalysts  can  be  acquired,  as  they  can  even  more 
certainly  be  lost.  Such  a  theory  is  not  only  of  value  in 
biology  and  the  ordinary  course  of  practical  medicine,  but 
may  probably  be  employed  with  advantage  in  the  study  of 
the  origins  of  disease  lately  commenced  at  St.  Andrews  by 
Mackenzie.  His  research  will  undoubtedly  deal  with  the 
future  effect  on  the  youthful  organism  of  the  passing  ail- 
ments of  children,  the  lasting  results  of  early  innutrition 
or  want  of  food  factors,  and  into  the  probability  of  such 
disorders  as  periodontitis  having  early  undiscovered 
stages  which  affect  the  whole  metabolic  or  catabolic 
machinery  of  the  patient.  It  should  not  be  forgotten  that 
studies  of  this  kind  were  suggested  by  Galton.  If  con- 
sidered analogical  reasoning  should  thus  tend  to  support 
the  intuition  and  clinical  knowledge  of  the  physician  it 
cannot  be  disdained.  It  is  obvious,  and  should  need  no 
proof,  that  the  imagination,  controlled  by  knowledge,  is  an 
integral  part  of  the  logic  of  discovery.  It  is  the  Mount 
Pisgah  of  science. 

Since  I  hope  to  have  shown  with  some  plausibility  that 
such  obscure  phenomena  as  mitosis  and  the  vexed  question 
of  transmission  of  acquired  and  altered  characteristics  can 
be  illustrated,  and  made  clearer  by  the  examples  just  given, 
and  since  such  considerations  threw  light  on  the  nature  of 
a  cell-nucleus,  and  enabled  us  to  think  of  it  as  a  store-house, 
while  we  look  on  catalysts  as  tools  picked  up  on  the 


20  WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

path  of  evolution  to  enable  protoplasm  to  do  better  and 
quicker  work,  it  seems  at  last  that  such  problems  as 
variations  of  all  kinds,  healthy  or  morbid,  may  really  find 
solutions  in  the  study  of  sociology  as  a  mixed  biological, 
physiological,  and  pathological  science.  And  since  all 
developmental  diseases  are  truly  variations  from  the  average 
or  normal  type,  it  looks  as  if  in  the  future  such  a  study  might 
enable  the  pathologist  to  discern  the  real  nature  of  malig- 
nancy, and  all  the  disorders  connected  with  the  endocrine 
organs,  which  are  the  regulators  of  development  and  orderly 
growth.  No  study  of  any  science  coming  finally  under  the 
inclusive  head  of  biology  can  leave  us  in  doubt  of  the 
entire  interdependence  of  all  parts  of  an  organism, 
however  much  such  interdependence  is  masked  during 
normal  or  static  conditions.  But  when  there  is  a  grave 
state  of  disorder  these  relations  become  obvious.  It  is 
so  in  a  "  body,"  and  it  is  so  in  a  state. 

During  the  late  condition  of  Europe  such  phenomena 
were  to  be  seen  very  clearly.  Variation  after  variation 
followed  on  stress,  and  as  the  nations  responded  to  the  strain 
put  upon  them,  it  was  seen  how  energy  was  diverted  from 
its  normal  channels  and  poured,  regardless  of  economic 
considerations,  into  new  and  enlarged  growths  of  offensive 
organs.  There  is  no  need  to  labour  these  points.  It  must 
have  been  obvious  to  every  one  that  we  were  then  (as  we 
are  now)  in  the  presence  of  biological  factors  dealing  with 
variation,  and  likely  to  present,  if  kept  in  unrestrained 
action,  all  the  phenomena  of  developmental  disease.  For 
the  essence  of  all  development  is  symbiotic  equilibrium, 
balance,  and  symmetry.  Without,  in  this  place,  applying 
biology  any  further  to  the  study  of  the  social  organism,  it 
may  be  asked  whether  such  phenomena  do  not  enable  us 
to  grasp,  if  not  in  detail,  at  least  in  their  broad  outlines,  the 


METHOD  IN  SCIENCE  21 

nature  of  the  bodily  disorders  we  know  as  developmental. 
For  all  such  disorders  are  either  failures  of  growth  or  over- 
growth, and  at  the  back  of  them  is  the  hierarchy  of  the 
glandular  system,  each  member  of  which  is  like  a  State 
department  claiming  so  much  energy,  money,  and  men,  as  a 
contribution  towards  the  active  production  of  the  necessary 
organs,  or  tools,  by  which  a  nation  meets  the  stresses  of 
the  environment  by  increased  growth  on  one  line  or  new 
growth  on  another.  The  functions  of  stress,  failure,  and 
repair,  which  are  as  relevant  to  societies  as  to  animals, 
are  considered  in  another  part  of  this  book. 

Thinking  upon  such  lines,  and  bearing  in  mind  the  fact 
that  during  abnormal  stress  there  is  a  tendency  to  reju- 
venescence, marked  by  the  jettison  of  old  ideas,  old  men, 
and  even  of  the  most  sacred  customs,  since  by  such  a  jetti- 
son the  activity  of  a  cell's  or  State's  protoplasm  is  thereby 
increased — just  as  it  is  hindered  by  the  reverse  process — 
we  reach  the  conception  that  such  a  process  can  be  over- 
done, and  a  state  of  protoplasmic  activity  attained  which  is 
embryonic,  or  anarchic.  No  observer  of  war  phenomena 
can  have  failed  to  observe  the  tendency  to  weakness  in 
central  control,  accompanied,  and  indeed  measured,  as  it 
was  by  the  increased  and  violent  activity  of  various  depart- 
ments of  State  responding  according  to  the  nature  of  the 
stresses  laid  upon  them.  If  central  (or  shall  I  say  glan- 
dular ?)  control  by  inhibition  had  broken  down,  we  should 
have  seen  phenomena  on  a  parallel  with  those  of  malignant 
tissues.  Perpetual  stimulation  or  irritation  by  itself  tends 
to  overgrowth  of  the  bodily  or  social  tissue  or  organ  in- 
volved ;  but  when  such  a  tendency  is  not  controlled  by  other 
tissues  or  organs,  there  is  a  tendency  to  invasiveness  or 
destructive  parasitism.  Such  observations  seem  to  show 
that  carcinomas  and  allied  phenomena  have  their  analogues 


22     WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

in  a  social  body,  and  preclude  us  from  thinking  of  them  by 
themselves,  or  attributing  them  to  special,  rather  than  to 
general,  causes.  It  is,  moreover,  impossible  not  to  notice 
the  connection  beween  such  phenomena  and  the  doctrines  of 
energetics.  When  only  so  much  free  energy  is  to  be  shared 
among  co-partners,  its  over-consumption  by  one  implies 
not  only  over-activity  in  one  place,  but  starvation  in 
another,  with  a  resulting  loss  of  balance. 

Such  particular  consideration  of  certain  unsolved 
problems  leads  directly  to  an  analysis  of  any  organism  as  a 
whole,  and  as  interdependent  parts.  When  taken  as  a 
whole,  it  can  once  again  be  regarded  as  part  of  a  wider,  more 
inclusive  organism  ;  but  to  regard  it  on  any  plane  as  com- 
posed of  parts,  forces  upon  us  the  fact  that  they  exist  in 
symbiosis  as  separate  cell  states.  Symbiosis  is,  however, 
usually  construed  as  mutual  help,  and  this  is  only  a  partial 
statement  of  the  facts,  unless  the  organism  is  static  in 
static  circumstances,  that  is,  unless  it  is  perfectly  "  adapted  " 
to  an  unchanging  environment.  Such  a  condition  is  ideal 
"  anarchism,"  a  state  of  affairs  in  which  each  unit  functions 
freely  according  to  its  nature,  and  in  no  way  interferes  with 
other  units,  since  it  lacks  any  qualities,  or  secretions,  which 
exercise  irritating  or  depressing  functions  on  its  neighbours. 
Such  a  form  of  life,  while  ideally  possible,  has  probably 
never  been  attained,  and  ordinary  symbiotic  equilibrium  is 
only  reached  practically  in  organisms  of  which  the  parts  are 
not  only  helpful  among  each  other,  but  are  actually ' '  hostile ' ' 
in  other  ways.  The  use  of  the  word  "  hostile  "  is,  of 
course,  no  more  than  verbal  shorthand  to  express  the  fact 
that  each  part  has  its  own  work,  and  in  many  cases  its  own 
frontiers,  or  limiting  membrane.  This  is  a  rough  state- 
ment of  the  biological  conception  of  any  organism,  and  we 
can  only  conceive  equilibrium  in  such  a  symbiotic  com- 


METHOD  IN  SCIENCE  23 

munity  as  a  result  reached  by,  and  in  spite  of,  internal 
stresses.  In  such  an  organism  each  part  is  excited  or 
inhibited,  or  both,  by  the  secretions  of  the  other  parts. 
Any  secretion  is  an  excretion,  but  these  excretions  have 
found  their  uses,  either  as  activators  or  catalysts,  or  as 
direct  depressants  or  inhibitors.  That  the  biological 
conception  is  universally  true  of  all  organisms  is  suggested 
not  only  in  biology  proper,  but  by  the  hostility,  open  or 
subdued,  which  characterizes  classes  in  society,  and  it 
suggests,  and  in  many  cases  supplies,  a  real  key  to  the  com- 
prehension of  developmental  disease.  As  was  suggested 
above,  it  throws  a  light  upon  the  effects  of  diseases  other 
than  developmental,  since  death  frequently  occurs  from 
an  indirect  effect  on  parts  of  the  organism,  some  of  which  are 
destroyed,  and  others  stimulated.  When  recovery  occurs, 
it  often  happens  that  the  grave  disturbance  of  a  violent 
infection  is  found  to  have  disturbed  the  symbiotic  life  of 
the  organism,  and  by  reducing  some  part,  or  gland,  to  partial 
impotence,  either  by  excitation  or  inhibition,  leads  to  later 
failures  of  development  or  to  lethal  overgrowth.  We  can 
thus  imagine  a  slight  organic  "  social  "  disturbance  in  a 
human  being  leading  directly  to  acromegaly  or  other 
disorders  of  the  pituitary,  or  to  myxcedema,  Graves' 
Disease,  and  all  the  possible  effects  of  hypo-  or  hyper- 
thyroidism. 

In  carrying  the  analogical  method  so  far,  I  am  well  aware 
that  it  will  be  said  that  such  suggestions  are  without 
foundation,  that  they  are  true  but  unimportant,  or  that 
they  are  important  and  that  every  one  knew  them  long  ago. 
But  I  have  been  more  impressed  by  a  single  fact  than  I 
shall  be  by  all  such  criticisms  combined.  When  I  suggested 
to  an  eminent  pathologist  that,  without  a  considerable 
knowledge  of  biology,  very  much  of  pathology  could  not  be 


24  WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

properly  understood  or  explained,  he  replied,  possibly  not 
without  humour,  that  he  had  no  time  for  the  course  of  study 
I  was  so  good  as  to  map  out  for  him.  I  accepted  the  rebuke 
in  good  part,  but  could  not  help  thinking  what  a  lamentable 
thing  it  was  for  scientific  discovery  that  each  worker  in 
any  particular  branch  of  research  apparently  hastened  to 
forget  the  very  nature  of  explanation,  which  is  the  intro- 
duction of  order  in  all  forms  of  knowledge,  and  the  arrange- 
ment of  every  fact  under  the  headings  of  more  inclusive 
sciences,  so  that  each  phenomenon  can  be  seen  from  all 
possible  points  of  view. 

It  was  before  remarked  that  there  is  much  well-founded 
complaint  of  the  neglect  of  science  in  England ;  but  the  truth 
is  that  none  neglect  it  like  many  scientific  men  who  might 
be  supposed  to  know  better.  It  is  not  only  so  in  the 
sciences  directly  connected  with  medicine,  but  in  all  others. 
In  no  psychology  whatsoever  can  any  recognition  of  the 
valuable  work  done  by  Robertson  Smith,  Tylor,  and  Fraser 
be  observed.  While  the  introspective  philosopher  digs  in 
the  morasses  of  his  own  mind,  and  with  each  shovelful 
proclaims  some  individual  accident  or  hasty  explanation  as 
a  universal  truth,  the  more  advanced  experimentalist  in 
mentation  relies  mainly  upon  the  compilation  of  statistics. 
But  both  alike  ignore  the  light  thrown  upon  the  workings  of 
the  brains  of  our  far-off  ancestors,  as  seen  in  thought  crystal- 
lizing into  custom,  myth,  and  ritual.  The  very  logicians, 
who  ex  hypothesi  are  exponents  of  reason,  prefer,  so  it  seems, 
to  dally  in  the  ruined  schools  of  mediaeval  philosophy, 
rather  than  study  the  natural  logic  of  the  mind  of  man  as 
shown  in  every  branch  of  folk-lore.  There  has  been  little 
endeavour,  or  none  that  has  met  with  favour,  to  analyse  the 
natural  hostility  of  group  to  group,  such  as  is  seen  exempli- 
fied in  "  the  tribal  spirit,"  into  its  constituents,  nor  has  it 


METHOD  IN  SCIENCE  25 

been  recognized  that  in  every  organism,  or  even  manu- 
factured mechanism,  the  facts  of  hostile  symbiosis  are 
fundamental.  Only  thus  can  we  link  the  very  passions 
of  politics  and  all  strife  to  proved  law.  In  another  place  I 
have  endeavoured,  as  far  as  possible,  to  use  anthropology 
as  a  key  not  only  to  unlock  past  history,  and  to  elucidate 
possible  factors  of  human  progress,  but  to  show  that  certain 
conditions  were  the  true  parents  of  all  the  enlarged  animal 
instincts  and  powers  of  inference  seen  in  the  modern  human 
brain.  It  is  easy  to  fail,  but  it  is  a  duty  to  try,  and  while 
endeavouring  to  map  out  the  ancient  paths  of  evolution,  we 
must  surely  avail  ourselves  of  every  scientific  lamp  however 
dim. 

If  the  rough  suggestions  of  this  paper  carry  any  weight, 
and  suggest  reflections  upon  method,  it  will  certainly  be 
admitted  that  students  have  rarely  taken  sufficient  ad- 
vantage of  the  truth,  that  not  only  is  evolution  going  on  all 
around  them  in  every  phenomenon  they  observe,  but  that 
processes  vitally  similar  to  those  they  seek  to  explain  are 
this  day  occurring  in  the  great  social  organism  of  which  they 
are  a  part.  Without  hope  of  moving  those  in  whom  evolu- 
tion has  done  its  work,  and  involution  has  begun,  it  may  be 
said  that  to  seek  to  solve  the  problems  of  heredity  without 
taking  serious  notice  of  the  fact  that  societies  give  birth  to 
and  bud  off  from  other  societies,  and  to  rely  mainly  on 
microscopic  research  when  great  macroscopic  phenomena  of 
the  same  kind  are  within  arm's-length  of  the  worker,  appears 
almost  ridiculous.  If  Lyell  worked  on  the  hypothesis  that 
the  observed  daily  changes  in  the  surface  of  the  earth, 
though  due  only  to  causes  that  seemed  too  slight  to  consider, 
might  account  for  the  world  as  we  see  it,  and  even  help  to 
prophesy  results  in  future  ages,  we  may  say  that  in  all  we 
observe  or  experience  are  keys  to  the  problems  which  other 


26     WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

sciences  than  geology  seek  to  solve.  For  it  may  be  repeated, 
even  again,  that  general  laws  are  indeed  general,  and  that 
each  special  case  is  but  that  universal  clad  in  its  peculiar 
garment  of  individual  particulars.  Necessary  as  the  study 
of  these  may  be  to  some  special  application  in  life,  it  is  by 
putting  them  aside,  and  by  divesting  truth  of  its  accidents 
by  the  use  of  the  generalizing  imagination,  that  the  greatest 
results  can  be  attained.  The  very  evolution  of  the  brain 
itself  has  placed  in  our  hands  the  mighty  powers  of  surmise 
and  expectation,  while  experience  has  given  us,  when  we 
consider  in  the  broadest  spirit  all  that  has  been  achieved, 
a  guide  by  which  we  can  hope  to  direct  our  steps  aright. 

REFERENCES. 

CHILD,  C.  M. — "  Senescence  and  Rejuvenescence." 

CUNNINGHAM,  J.  T. — "  Heredity  of  Secondary  Sexual  Charac- 
ters in  Relation  to  Hormones,"  Proc.  Zool.  Soc.  London, 
1908. 

GALTON,  Sir  FRANCIS. — "  Enquiries  into  Human  Faculty." 

HARTOG,  MARCUS. — "True  Mechanism  of  Mitosis,"  Leipzig,  1914. 

JEVONS,  W.  S. — "  Elementary  Lessons  in  Logic,"  1880. 

KEITH,  ARTHUR.  — "  Differentiation  of  Mankind  into  Racial 
Types,"  Address,  Brit,  Assoc.,  1919. 

MAINE,  Sir  H.  G. — "Ancient  Law"  (Pollock  ed.),  1905. 

MILL,  J.  S.— "  System  of  Logic,"  1886. 

SPENCER,  HERBERT. — "  Transcendental  Physiology,"  Essays, 
1901,  vol.  i. 


CHAPTER    II 

MALIGNANCY 

"P)EFORE  trying  to  show  how  a  general  biological 
-D  and  sociological  principle  can  assist  the  investigator 
of  malignancy,  I  may  say  that  it  was  the  form  of  it 
known  as  X-ray  cancer  which  led  me  to  attempt  a  co- 
ordination of  the  many  apparently  unrelated  facts  con- 
nected with  it.  To  one  not  unfamiliar  with  speculation 
from  the  time  of  Durante  and  Cohnheim,  it  seemed  remark- 
able that  such  a  new  aspect  of  the  problem  did  not  lead 
the  medical  profession  to  discard  theories  formed  before 
X-rays  were  known.  For,  in  the  welter  of  conflicting 
opinions  as  to  the  causes  of  cancer,  it  was  at  least  certain 
that  here  were  agents  which  not  only  might,  but,  if  suffi- 
ciently applied,  must  in  the  end  produce  it.  It  seemed  to 
me  then,  as  it  seems  now,  that  when  such  were  discovered 
all  arguments  as  to  the  part  played  by  "  rests,"  or  irritation, 
or  an  acquired  bad  habit  of  tissues  (Adami),  or  some 
unknown  infection,  protozoal  or  bacillary,  were  partly 
beside  the  point.  Those  martyrs  to  science,  the  early 
radiologists,  must  have  died  in  vain  if  no  one  recognizes 
the  high  importance  of  the  facts  to  which  their  agonies 
bore  witness.  That  radiologists,  so  far  as  I  am  aware, 
have  not  seen  the  full  value  of  X-ray  dermatitis  and 
malignancy  in  cancer  theory  is,  I  can  only  suppose,  due 

to  the  immense  calls  upon  their  time  and  the  peculiar 

27 


28     WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

interest  of  their  daily  work.  But  among  them  orthodoxy 
has  scarcely  had  time  to  rear  its  head,  and  those  who  have 
seen  tissues  increase  or  rarefy  almost  under  their  own  eyes 
will  probably  regard  with  suspicion  a  hypothetic  unique 
infection,  let  us  say,  which  has  the  remarkable  power  of 
causing  the  proliferation  of  vigorous  invasive  tissue.  Any 
theory  of  malignancy  which  does  not  co-ordinate  their 
work  with  all  relevant  physiological  and  pathological 
facts  cannot  be  a  true  one.  But,  by  taking  their  labours 
into  account,  and  linking  them  with  certain  physiological 
and  pathological  phenomena,  it  is,  I  think,  possible  to 
show  that  a  fresh  general  view  may  reveal  its  true  nature. 
If  it  is  then  seen  that  there  is  no  invariable  single  ante- 
cedent to  malignancy,  it  must  be  admitted  that  there  are 
many  exciting  "  causes"  of  which  X-rays  are  but  one.  If 
such  is  the  case,  it  follows  logically  that  it  is  in  the  tissues 
concerned,  their  nature  and  relationship,  that  the  true 
cause  must  be  found.  Those  who  have  learnt  by  bitter 
experience  how  to  upset,  and  happily  more  often  to  restore, 
somatic  equilibrium,  will  be  most  ready  to  admit  this 
conclusion.  Dynamite  may  be  detonated  in  many  ways, 
but  the  scientific  cause  of  the  explosion  is  not  the  man 
with  the  match,  or  the  motive  which  led  to  its  use,  though 
these  may  be  causes  in  law  or  psychology,  or  even  the 
fulminate  cap,  but  its  inherent  molecular  instability.  Per- 
haps the  most  valuable  work  done  of  late  is  that  which 
shows  the  means  and  methods  by  which  an  unstable 
organism  is  kept  in  equilibrium,  and  an  explanation  of 
malignancy  must  take  it  into  account. 

It  is,  however,  not  common  for  investigators  to  work 
under  the  influence  of  general  ideas  which  cannot  easily 
be  shown  to  have  strict  relevance  to  their  objects.  Though 
to  avoid  this  prevents  the  concoction  of  fantastic  views^ 


MALIGNANCY  29 

it  is  certain  that  too  strong  a  revulsion  against  theory 
tends  to  atrophy  the  imagination,  which  is  the  most  powerful 
weapon  of  analysis.  If  our  hypotheses  and  experiments 
are  always  closely  related  to  the  particular  matter  in  hand, 
we  learn  to  distrust  unduly  the  tentative  inductions  we  owe 
to  those  who  do  not  fear  to  put  forward  provisional  results 
which  seem  to  have  no  immediate  bearing  on  investigation. 
Thus  we  do  not  commonly  speak  of  an  organism  as  a 
republic  of  cells,  or  a  federation  of  organs,  and  though  this 
seems  unprofitable  to  many,  we  do  so  with  advantage,  since 
it  helps  to  clarify  our  ideas  on  general  metabolism.  The 
conception  is  even  more  useful  when  it  tends  to  show  that 
symbiosis  is  not  only  found  in  groups  or  societies,  but  in 
those  close  cell-systems  to  which  we  commonly  restrict  the 
term  "  individual."  The  more  such  ideas  are  studied  the 
more  fruitful  they  become,  though  progress  has  not  so  far 
advanced  but  that  it  is  commonly  taken  for  granted  that  the 
essence  of  symbiotic  life  is  mutual  or  inter-organic  help. 
We  ignore  the  fact  that  when  two  individuals,  and  definite 
cell-colonies  may  with  advantage  be  called  such,  preserve 
individuality,  there  is  in  their  relations  a  certain  real,  if 
subdued,  hostility.  Mutual  help,  even  if  indirect,  un- 
doubtedly exists,  but  how  easily  their  relationship  may 
become  one  of  parasite  and  host  all  zoologists  are  aware. 
There  is  often  a  great  reluctance  to  admit  that  what  is  true 
of  an  organism  as  commonly  conceived,  is  also  true  of 
loosely  knit  human  societies,  and  that  the  converse  is  not 
mere  fancy.  But  when  we  observe  that  this  fundamental 
reserve  hostility  is  in  fact  self-protection  in  those  political 
federations  which  help  each  member  even  while  they 
provide  against  encroachment  on  the  part  of  others,  or  of 
the  federal  authorities,  and  then  compare  such  observations 
with  organic  life,  it  may  not,  to  those  with  scientific  imagina- 


30  WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

tion,  seem  far-fetched  to  declare  that  the  phenomena  of 
zoological  and  political  symbiosis  are  intimately  related, 
and  alike  biological.  Even  in  the  healthy  there  is  always 
armed  neutrality  of  tissues,  and  at  any  time  there  may  come 
a  breakdown  leading  to  warfare  in  the  human  body.  Such 
a  conception  helps  us  to  see  that,  whatever  the  waste  in 
material,  the  methods  by  which  life  is  built  up,  from 
the  apparently  simple  amoeba  to  the  hugest  empire, 
are  marvellously  economical  —  so  economical,  indeed, 
as  to  suggest  that  life  could  be  constructed  only  in 
one  way. 

Whether  such  views  are  regarded  as  commonplaces  or 
extravagances  every  political  student  will  recognize  as 
true  the  statement  of  fundamental  inter-state  hostility, 
while  every  biologist  or  physiologist  knows  that  balance 
between  opposing  forces  in  the  organism  is  a  sine  qua  non 
of  its  existence.  To  such  a  degree  is  this  carried  in  health, 
that  every  definite  organ  now  appears  to  rule  and  to  be 
ruled,  to  control  and  to  be  controlled.  The  regulators  of 
metabolism  are  also  the  regulators  of  growth,  and  all  alike 
appear  conditioned  by  the  chemical  messengers  of  their 
environment.  This  is  known  to  be  true  of  the  ductless 
glands,  and  as  we  learn  more  of  their  functions  we  may 
presently  infer  that  all  glands,  ductless  or  not,  have  several 
functions,  and  go  on  to  suspect  that  every  portion  of  the 
whole  body  influences  every  other  part,  either  for  good  or 
evil.  What  was  help  may  become  refusal  of  aid,  and  what 
was  due  inhibition  may  exhibit  itself  as  destructive.  If 
we  carry  these  general  views  with  us,  and  seek  for  light, 
not  only  in  the  lesser  laboratory,  but  in  the  great  laboratory 
of  life  all  round  us  in  which  ceaseless  experiment  is  carried 
on,  we  may  presently  be  able  to  infer  from  the  theory  of 
hostile  symbiosis  the  real  nature  of  malignancy,  and  to 


MALIGNANCY  31 

suggest  certain  paths  of  inquiry  and  experiment  with  the 
view  to  discovering  a  cure. 

However  much  remains  to  be  learnt  of  the  glandular 
system,  it  is  known  that  the  tissues  respond  or  fail  to  re- 
spond, and  that  characteristics  are  moulded  in  one  way 
or  another,  in  accordance  with  the  presence  or  absence, 
the  hypertrophy  or  atrophy,  of  these  glands.  When 
sex  is  once  determined  the  genital  glands  dominate 
growth  ;  testes  are  more  frequently  correlated  with  larger, 
ovaries  with  lesser,  size.  Ovariotomy  allows  undeveloped 
male  homologues  greater  opportunities ;  early  castration  by 
preventing  differentiation  preserves  female  characteristics. 
If  growth  and  size  are  mainly  determined  by  the  pituitary 
and  thyroid,  emasculation  appears  to  permit  the  pituitary 
to  exercise  a  greater  influence  on  the  legs,  since  the 
eunuch's  are  longer  than  normal.  Among  the  unsolved 
problems  of  these  organs  is  the  phenomenon  known  as 
unilateral  acromegaly ;  but  the  very  fact  that  it  occurs,  and 
that  perfect  symmetry  is  rare,  shows  how  remarkably  a 
hormone,  or  regulators  which  Gley  has  named  "  harmo- 
zones,"  can  work  or  be  inhibited.  It  seems  that  the 
tissues  are  moulded  according  to  the  stimulation  they 
receive  from  secretions  of  which  the  chemical  constitu- 
tion may  presently  be  as  well  known  as  that  of  adrenalin, 
which  exercises  so  powerful  an  influence  on  the  blood- 
pressure.  A  bone  may  be  a  function  of  many  variables; 
but  one  is  a  gland  placed  beside  the  brain.  It  seems  prob- 
able that  the  parathyroids  influence  the  growth  of  nervous 
tissue,  since  they  control  the  irregular  discharges  of  motor 
nerves,  and  we  yet  learn  that  some  forms  of  epilepsy  are  due 
to  hypo-parathyroidism.  Thus  not  only  growth,  but  much 
normal  behaviour,  is  ruled  by  what  Bland-Sutton  well  calls 
a  glandular  pantheon.  That  this  is  obviously  so  may 


82     WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

reasonably  lead  to  the  inference  that  interacting  stimula- 
tion and  regulation  is  a  function  of  all  tissues,  and  that  this 
is  the  method  of  growth  and  order  in  every  animal  what- 
soever. All  cases  of  excessive  or  defective  growth  must 
be  classed  as  the  result  of  stimulation,  or  the  want  of  it,  as 
surely  as  we  see  atrophy  follow  a  failure  of  function  or 
hypertrophy  on  its  excess.  But  if  this  is  generally  true  of 
all  the  obviously  controlled  tissues,  it  may  easily  enough 
be  true  of  those  which  are  regulated  we  know  not  how, 
and,  if  that  be  granted  for  the  sake  of  discussion,  it  seems 
possible  not  only  to  class  all  cases  of  malignancy,  but 
to  suggest  possible  means  of  combating  it  by  other  than 
surgical  means. 

That  some  method  should  be  adopted  for  clearing  up  the 
confusion  of  theory  seems  obvious  when  the  battle-ground 
of  the  cancer  authorities  and  specialists  is  surveyed  without 
prejudice.  Unless  there  is  definite  reason  for  coming  to 
other  conclusions,  it  is  usually  safest  to  work  on  the  principle 
that  earnest  and  able  workers  are  rarely  entirely  wrong. 
That  the  constitutional  view  of  cancer,  held  by  Paget, 
though  undoubtedly  "  humoral,"  and  therefore  suspect, 
is  still  advocated  by  some  is  not  surprising  when  it  takes 
the  form  of  "  predisposition,"  if  the  word  is  interpreted  in 
the  light  of  modern  physiology  and  heredity.  To  go  no 
further  than  to  speak  of  the  cancerous  diathesis,  after  the 
more  ancient  manner,  is  however  a  denial  of  explanation. 
The  theory  of  infection  may  also  have  something  to  com- 
mend itself,  if  it  is  only  on  the  ground  that  infections 
may  stimulate  a  latent  proclivity,  though  to  declare  that 
malignancy  is  due  to  a  special  pathogenic  organism  is  to 
ask  us  to  believe  that  every  form  of  it  has  its  own  special 
bacillus  or  protozoon,  or  that  a  single  one  can  exhibit  its 
potentialities  in  a  thousand  shapes,  while  it  is  necessary  to 


MALIGNANCY  38 

ignore  other  very  definite  phenomena  which  can  with 
difficulty  be  brought  into  line  with  such  views.     Moreover, 
few  pathologists  will  admit  that  what  is  seen  in  cancers  has 
any  great  likeness  to  those  diseases  definitely  traced  to 
infection.     For  such  a  theory  to  be  complete  explanation,  it 
would  be  necessary  to  class  all  inflammatory  hyperplasias 
with  malignant  overgrowth.     It  is,  of  course,  impossible  to 
deal  with  all  that  has  been  said  in  support  of  the  infection 
theory,  which  at  the  moment  seems  the  orthodox  view ;  but, 
so  far  as  I  have  yet  discovered,  no  exposition  of  it  can  be 
reconciled  with  the  complete  pathology  and  histology  of 
these  disorders.1     All  the  evidence  alleged  to  support  it  can 
be  interpreted  as  irritation  tending  to  upset  metabolic 
balance,  and  the  conclusions  drawn  from  it  are  not  com- 
patible with  X-ray  cancer,  or  with  the  physiological  and 
pathological  phenomena  at  the  base  of  chorion-epithelioma. 
Such  an  explanation  will,  I  feel  sure,  be  found  a  super- 
fluous luxury,  and  as  such  to  be  dispensed  with  by  the 
economic  philosopher.     There  are  also  workers  who  seem 
satisfied  with  the  notion  that  the  phenomena  in  question 
are  due  to  loss  of  function  in  some  cells,  and  increase  of 
function  in  others.      This  is  no  doubt  true,  but,  again, 
that    is    the    very  thing   which    needs    to  be    explained. 
We  are  often  told  that  irritation  is  the  cause  of  cancer, 
and    the    mere   statement    seems  to  be    considered    ex- 
planation.    This  is  not  the  case  for,  though  irritation  is 
often  followed  by  cancer,  all  that  is  proved  is  that  in  some 
of   the    organisms   concerned   resistance    to  irritation  is 
weakened,  whereas  in  others  it  is  maintained.     Not  every 
clay-pipe    smoker,   even    with    syphilis,   or   every    burnt 
Kangri-user  in  Kashmir,  or  every  chimney  sweep,  or  pitch 
or  paraffin  worker,  gets  cancer.     We  wish  to  know  why 

1  See  Appendix  A.     The  Infection  Theory  of  Cancer. 
3 


34  WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

these  differences  exist,  and  we  shall  then  be  able  to  class 
malignancy  among  other  phenomena  of  normal  and 
abnormal  growth.  The  attribution  of  malignancy  to  foods 
is  possibly  not  without  value,  if  it  leads  to  a  diet  which  is 
not  irritating  to  the  intestinal  canal,  and  the  fact  that 
salmon  or  trout  fry,  when  fed  abnormally  on  hog's  liver,  may, 
it  seems,  suffer  from  an  overgrowth  of  thyroidal  tissue,  which 
later  may  become  malignant,  is  of  importance  ;  but  we  are 
still  as  far  as  ever  from  the  knowledge  of  causes  which  leads 
to  explanatory  classification.  It  appears  that  all  these 
views  are  true  as  far  as  they  go.  If  it  can  be  shown  that 
they  all  point  in  one  direction,  we  should  not  be  far  from 
the  truth. 

There  are,  however,  other  theories  to  be  taken  into 
account,  which  appear  of  greater  value,  since  they  are  more 
than  re-statement,  and  seek  explanation  in  the  nature  and 
functions  of  the  very  tissues  which  become  abnormal. 
Such  endeavours  take  into  consideration  not  only  pathology, 
but  physiology  as  well.  If  it  is  said,  by  the  way,  that  there 
is  no  greater  hindrance  to  scientific  advance  than  the 
separation  of  physiology  and  pathology,  few,  who  are  not 
specialists  in  either  branch  of  learning,  will  be  found  to 
deny  it.  The  opinions,  for  they  are  little  more,  of  Thiersch 
and  Waldeyer,  have  at  any  rate  the  advantage  of  contact 
with  the  physiological  side  of  the  problem.  Thiersch 
held  that  with  advancing  age  the  connective  tissue  ceased 
to  be  able  to  hold  the  epithelium  in  check.  It  was  a 
brilliant  guess,  but  it  failed  to  account  for  carcinomas  in  the 
young,  nor  does  it  in  any  way  explain  sarcomas.  Yet 
how  near  the  truth  it  was  may  possibly  be  shown  later, 
though,  according  to  Bainbridge,  the  modern  view  of  the 
function  of  epithelium  during  development  is  that  it 
determines  the  character  of  the  connective  tissue,  and 


MALIGNANCY  35 

that  cancer  cells  mould  or  determine  connective  tissue  "  to 
their  requirements."  This  may  mean  much  or  nothing, 
for  I  confess  to  having  seen  few  such  loose  statements. 
Waldeyer's  opinion  was  more  complicated  than  Thiersch's, 
and  fuller  of  assumptions.  He  held  that  the  epithelium 
was  weakened  and,  being  pressed  on  by  the  connective 
tissue,  was  in  parts  isolated,  and  thereby  in  some  inexplic- 
able way  liable  to  transformation  into  cancer  cells.  Since 
this  transformation  is  the  problem,  we  should  be  no  further 
advanced  if  insistance  on  the  material  of  change  were  not 
distinctly  useful.  Durante  and  Cohnheim,  also,  seem  to 
have  been  in  favour  of  the  theory  that  the  epithelium  and 
connective  tissue  directly  influenced  each  other;  but 
Cohnheim  was  led  away  by  the  sequestration  or  "  cell- 
rest  "  theory  which  is  due  to  him.  Modern  research  seems 
to  support  his  opinion  that  tumours  are  frequently  to  be 
attributed  to  such  causes ;  but  the  malignity  of  some  and 
the  benignity  of  others  is  still  to  be  explained.  It  is  absurd 
to  suppose  that  embryonic  "  rests  "  always  occupy  the 
sites  of  tumours  started  by  irritation,  and  Cohnheim  himself 
excepted  certain  cases  where  that  seems  the  immediate 
cause  of  malignancy.  Ribbert  held  that  such  "  rests  "  can 
be  created  post-natally,  and  that  epithelium,  when  cut  off 
from  its  ordinary  physiological  control,  can  proliferate 
malignantly.  Implantation  tumours  by  themselves  are  suffi- 
cient disproof  of  this  view.  Adami  attributes  cancer  to  an 
acquired  "  habit  of  growth."  The  cells  devote  themselves 
to  mitosis.  After  what  I  have  said  I  need  not  add  that 
this  is  merely  re-description.  It  deals  with  "  how  ?  " 
not  with  "  why  ?  "  Green  attributes  cancer  largely  to  the 
influence  of  the  combustion  products  of  coal  or  peat,  with 
a  high  percentage  of  sulphur,  as  well  as  to  low-lying  valleys. 
While  such  may  be  contributory  factors  to  a  loss  of  sym- 


36  WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

biotic  equilibrium,  they  certainly  do  not  "  explain " 
malignancy.  For  it  cannot  be  too  frequently  insisted  on 
that  true  explanation  is  the  classification  of  phenomena 
under  some  more  inclusive  law.  Observations,  however 
useful  they  may  prove  as  regards  prevention,  are  not 
explanation.  For  instance,  if  it  be  true  that  atrophy  of 
the  thyroid  is  common,  or  almost  invariable,  in  cancer,  we 
are  not  much  further  advanced  in  explanation,  although  in 
certain  cases,  say  those  of  familial  proneness  to  malignant 
disease,  such  an  observation  might  be  useful. 

The  sole  general  results  which  I  am  able  to  extract 
from  the  argumentative  confusion  of  the  subject  is  that 
epithelium  and  connective  tissue  somehow  or  other  possess 
the  capacity  of  invasive  aberrancy  under  long-continued 
irritation.  This  may  be  no  more  than  a  re-statement,  but 
it  suggests  that  the  only  hope  of  explanation  lies  in  the 
discovery  of  the  reasons  for  tissue  stability  or  instability. 
Is  there  any  reason  for  supposing  that  instability  or  in- 
vasiveness  is  in  certain  conditions  a  physiological  quality  in 
epithelium  ?  That  connective-tissue  cells  are  capable  of 
reparative  work  of  an  invasive  order  we  know  already.  It 
seems  that  the  reply  to  the  question  about  epithelium  is 
ready  to  hand.  Bland-Sutton  was,  perhaps,  on  the  very 
verge  of  a  possible  explanation  of  cancer  when  he  declared 
that  in  the  normal  action  of  the  trophoblasts  of  the 
fertilized  ovum  could  be  seen  the  physiological  type  of  the 
invasive  action  of  epithelium.  In  chorion-epithelioma 
such  a  physiological  type  becomes  pathological.  This 
dictum  implicitly  asserts  that  where  the  trophoblastic 
action  becomes  malignant,  there  is  a  loss  of  balance  ;  the 
multi-nuclear  cap  of  the  villus  is  not  inhibited  by  the  normal 
uterine  reactions  which  usually  prevent  such  invasion. 
What  is  it  in  the  normal  uterus  which  does  inhibit  it  ? 


MALIGNANCY  37 

We  are  not  going  beyond  what  is  known  of  repair  if  we  say 
that  the  reaction  tissues  are  mainly  connective.  In  the 
normal  gravid  uterus  the  erosive  action  of  the  trophoblast 
is  thus  in  all  probability  stayed  by  a  connective-tissue 
reaction.  Yet  this  erosive  action  is  malignancy.  Cells  in 
contact  with  the  trophoblast  dissolve — are,  as  it  were, 
digested.  As  the  larva  of  the  blow-fly  dissolves  dead  cells, 
so  the  trophoblast  cap  dissolves  live  uterine  cells,  by  some 
chemical  product,  some  cytolitic  secretion.  In  normal 
gestation  such  action  is  neutralized  sooner  or  later,  and 
since  malignant  epithelium,  when  active,  pierces  connective 
tissues  as  if  they  did  not  exist,  the  reaction  which  stays 
its  course  in  the  uterine  wall  must  be  more  than  mere 
fibrous  growth.  We  seem  compelled  to  assume  that  some 
cells  can  neutralize  malignant  cytolitic  action  by  their 
products,  and  thus  restore  physiological  balance.  The 
resumption  of  pathological  action  in  chorion-epithelioma 
comes  on  in  the  period  of  involution,  when  all  the  uterine 
tissues  lose  their  activity.  It  seems  hardly  too  much  to 
say  that  the  secretions  or  cell-products  of  the  active  con- 
nective tissue  are  those  which  inhibit,  or  fail  to  inhibit, 
the  alien  epithelium.  H.  B.  Spencer,  after  quoting  Sir 
John  Williams,  who  stated  that  pregnancy  had  no  influence 
in  causing  benign  ovarian  tumours  to  become  malignant,  and 
that  in  old  women  such  are  rare,  goes  on  to  say  that  the 
cause  of  this  rarity  cannot  at  present  be  stated.  A  light 
is,  however,  thrown  upon  these  facts  if  it  is  remembered 
that  during  gestation  and  the  retrocedence  of  the  aged 
ovary  there  is  great  connective-tissue  activity. 

If  the  implications  of  the  argument  are  clear,  it  will  be 
seen  that  the  conclusion  to  be  drawn  tentatively  is  that  in 
such  reactions  lies  hidden  the  mystery  of  malignancy. 
It  will,  perhaps,  be  objected  that  the  multi-nuclear  cap  of  the 

S  7  5 1  u 


38  WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

trophoblast  is  in  a  sense  of  alien  origin,  whereas  ordinary 
malignant  growths  are  autochthonous.  In  this  very  fact 
of  partial  alien  origin  lies  support  of  the  view  suggested.  It 
is  more  than  conceivable  that  the  male  element  in  the 
zygote  is  here  the  earliest  possible  origin  of  malignant 
energy.  It  would  not  be  wholly  surprising  if  future  investi- 
gation traced  such  cases  to  the  peculiar  energy  of  some 
spermatozoa.  The  ease  with  which  a  sperm-cell  enters  the 
unfertilized  ovum  might  be  a  measure  of  the  likelihood  of 
chorion-epithelioma,  provided  that  the  resistance  of  the 
ovum  were  a  measure  of  the  general  tissue  resistance  of  the 
maternal  organism.  But  even  granting  that  the  alien,  or 
partially  alien,  origin  of  the  trophoblast  renders  malignancy 
more  likely  than  with  ordinary  somatic  tissues,  it  may  be 
replied,  on  the  lines  adopted  at  the  beginning  of  this  paper, 
that  all  such  tissues  are,  in  spite  of  their  symbiotic  life, 
fundamentally  alien  and  hostile.  A  breakdown  in  their 
relations  as  established  by  evolution  may,  and  in  many 
forms  of  disease  does,  occur.  By  the  study  of  the  glan- 
dular system  the  interdependence  of  all  tissues  is  inferred. 
There  is,  also,  undoubtedly  self -protection.  '  Thus  far 
and  no  farther  "  is  embryological  law.  With  deficient 
inhibition  we  see  this  law  abrogated.  For  in  a  new  environ- 
ment we  may  see  any  variation.  Thus  the  polymorphism 
of  malignant  epithelial  cells  described  by  E.  H.  Kettle  is 
just  what  might  be  expected  on  the  loss  of  normal  control. 
The  whole  body  is  a  group  of  organs  and  tissues  which  are 
not  always  harmonious,  and  the  behaviour  of  malignant  or 
benign  aberrant  tissue  is  by  no  means  a  phenomenon 
standing  by  itself.  Probably  all  tissues  might  become 
malignant  if  they  were  as  capable  of  free  and  rapid  pro- 
liferation as  connective  tissue  and  epithelium.  Invasiveness 
is  natural  to  embryonic  tissues.  But  have  not  embryo- 


MALIGNANCY  89 

legists  been  apt  to  regard  the  cessation  of  invasion  at 
a  given  stage  as  a  "  natural  "  fact,  i.e.  just  the  result  to  be 
expected  of  that  kind  of  cell  or  tissue  ?  But  to  cease 
growing  means  either  a  failure  of  energy  or  inhibition,  and 
growth  must  be  analysed  into  excitation  and  inhibition. 
In  a  very  true  sense  "  malignancy  "  or  invasiveness  is  char- 
acteristic of  all  growing  tissue.  It  is  not  a  wild  illustration 
to  point  out  that  in  society  we  are  all  potential  criminals  at 
the  mercy  of  excitation  and  inhibition,  nor  otiose  to  observe 
that  the  liability  to  crime  on  the  part  of  aliens  in  this  or  any 
country  is  due  to  unaccustomed  stimulation  and  the  lack 
of  former  inhibitions.  Such  criminality  is  an  analogue  of 
malignancy.  I  owe  to  Professor  Keith  the  suggestion  that 
the  negro  in  the  United  States  is  even  a  better  example. 
The  negro  community  there  is  as  much  a  transplanted  tissue 
as  a  cancer  metastasis,  it  tends  to  spread,  excites  violent 
reactions,  and  might  conceivably  prove  definitely  malignant. 
I  am  aware  that  the  remark  may  excite  ridicule ;  but  it  can 
be  pointed  out  that  the  reaction  against  the  immigrant 
negro  in  the  north  is  comparatively  slight,  and  that  when 
trouble  occurs  it  is  very  frequently  due  to  the  presence  of  a 
Southerner  who,  by  his  previous  contact  with  the  race, 
has  been  "sensitized  "  so  as  to  react  violently.  Without 
desiring  to  push  the  analogy  to  its  farthest  extreme,  it  is 
obvious  that  a  large  negrine  irruption  tends  to  break  up  and 
push  apart  previous  social  bonds  and  regulations.  I  do 
not  see  how  it  can  be  denied  that  such  illustrations  help 
us  to  understand  the  more  obscure  somatic  phenomena. 

It  must  be  quite  obvious  by  now  that  the  views  here 
advocated  link  the  general  theory  of  malignancy  to  the 
doctrine  of  the  endocrine  organs,  that  glandular  hierarchy 
or  pantheon  which  rules  growth  and  metabolism.  When 
we  observe  that  the  absence  of  a  particular  secretion  limits 


40     WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

growth,  or  that  its  undue  increase  makes  such  growth  abnor- 
mally large,  we  are  assuredly  dealing  with  phenomena 
closely  connected  with  the  existence  of  epithelial  or  con- 
nective-tissue neoplasms.  In  both  sets  of  phenomena  the 
root  fact  is  failure  of  proliferation  or  its  excess.  If  we  delve 
deeply  enough  into  causes  it  will  not  seem  absurd  to  put 
cancers  and  giantism  or  acromegaly  into  related  sub-classes. 
That  the  latter  are  due  to  abnormal  glandular  activity  we 
know.  With  normal  pituitary  influence  no  overgrowth 
occurs.  Connective-tissue  proliferation  ceases  at  a  point 
when  the  glandular  system  becomes  balanced.  This  is 
obviously  the  case  with  what  we  see  in  repair  of  normal 
epithelium  and  connective  tissue.  When  the  epithelium  is 
stripped  away,  and  the  underlying  structures  damaged,  the 
connective-tissue  cells  proliferate  rapidly.  As  the  young 
epithelial  cells  invade  the  edges  of  the  wound  the  under- 
lying cells  become  fibrous  and  deep  scar- tissue.  Excessive 
and  unhealthy  granulations  only  arise  when  the  epithelium 
does  not  do  its  work.  Histologically  there  is  a  great  like- 
ness between  round-celled  sarcoma  and  granulation  tissue, 
and,  after  all,  granulation  is  no  more  than  connective- 
tissue  cell  proliferation  growing  outwards  into  a  wound 
where  normal  tissues  are  wanting.  A  sarcoma  might 
almost  be  called  inverted  ingrowing  granulations .  That  the 
varied  phenomena  of  malignancy  exceed  in  variety  those 
attributable  to  merely  defective  or  hypertrophied  glands 
is  only  what  might  be  expected.  Such  glands  are  highly 
specialized  epithelium  with  very  definite  work.  The 
general  epithelium  of  the  body  is  much  less  differentiated 
and  nearer  the  embryonic  type.  It  is  found  practically 
everywhere.  Connective  tissue  is  the  somatic  network; 
in  no  part  is  it  absent.  It  exhibits  a  remarkable  capacity 
for  many  forms  of  rapid  specialization,  and  may  be  looked 


MALIGNANCY  41 

on  as  highly  unstable  because  of  these  very  qualities.  But 
its  instability  is  obviously  a  function  of  many  variables. 
From  the  universal  presence  of  these  two  tissues  we  infer 
that  normally  there  is  nothing  in  the  organism  which 
inhibits  the  existence  of  either  in  any  part.  They  can  grow 
anywhere,  and  if  aberrancy  occurs  at  all  it  is  in  them  we 
should  look  for  it,  if  they  did  not,  in  some  analogous  to  the 
action  of  the  endocrines,  inhibit  each  other's  undue  growth. 
The  age  incidence  of  sarcoma  and  carcinoma  suggests  most 
forcibly  that  they  do  so.  Sarcoma  is  predominately  a 
disease  of  youth,  though  it  may  be  found  at  any  age.  It  may 
develop  in  utero.  Repair  is  most  active  when  it  is  com- 
monest, and  epithelium  is  most  delicate.  Epithelium 
reaches  a  peculiar  state  of  activity,  as  shown  by  its 
products  and  conduct,  at  a  later  age  in  which  connective- 
tissue  activity  is  lessened  and  repair  slackens.  It  is  a  period 
in  which  persons  of  failing  metabolism  tend  to  accumulate 
toxic  products  in  the  connective  tissue  which  depress  and 
inhibit  its  activity.  It  is  the  age  of  cancer.  When  cancer 
occurs  in  the  adolescent  there  is  frequently  a  history  of 
heredity.  That  the  unbalanced  should  breed  unbalanced 
offspring  is  not  surprising.  The  cancer  house  and  the 
cancer  valley  are  unhealthy,  most  low-lying.  From  a  defec- 
tive environment  we  do  not  expect  tissue  health  or  balance, 
i.e.  the  normal  influence  of  one  tissue  on  another  in  a 
federated  system.  It  is  by  no  means  necessary  that  such 
influences  must  be  exerted  by  definite  glands.  Every  glan- 
dular secretion  is  but  a  specialized  form  of  some  unknown 
epithelial  product.  Snake  venom  arises  in  a  specialized 
salivary  gland ;  the  secretion  of  the  salivary  gland  in 
embryonic  epithelial  cells.  Epithelium  as  the  parent  tissue 
of  the  true  glands  must  have  its  own  unspecialized  secre- 
tion, which  is  poured  into  the  circulation  and  exerts  its 


42  WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

influence  everywhere.  We  can  hardly  go  wrong  if  we 
say  that  every  cell  in  the  body  influences  every  other  cell, 
and  that  those  which  are  in  an  immense  majority  have 
much  power.  Newton's  law  of  gravity  might  almost  be 
translated  into  a  somatic  law,  even  if  some  physiological 
Einstein  presently  corrected  it. 

It  is,  therefore,  by  no  means  mere  guesswork  to  assume 
that  the  relations  of  epithelium  and  connective  tissue  are  the 
essence  of  the  cancer  problem.  Quite  independent  of  their 
cross  action  in  repair  we  actually  see  in  atrophic  "  scirrhus  " 
of  the  mamma  that  this  slowly  developing  cancer  is  sur- 
rounded by  more  or  less  dense  strands  of  fibrous  tissue,  and 
is  often  known  as  withering  or  contracting  cancer.  Patients 
may  live  for  twenty  years  or  more  with  this  variety  of  the 
disease.  In  old  age  the  connective  tissue  appears  to  give 
way,  and  the  few  imprisoned  anarchic  epithelial  cells  may 
resume  their  invasive  qualities.  It  was  such  cancers 
which  showed  the  older  physicians  that  there  were  attempts 
at  repair  in  malignancy ;  but  they  attributed  its  arrest  to 
mere  mechanical  action,  a  view  not  tenable  when  we 
consider  the  great  erosive  effect  of  really  wild  epithelium. 
Handley  has  shown  that  in  melanotic  cancer  at  a  later  stage 
of  permeation,  there  is  inflammation  accompanied  by 
round-celled  infiltration  and  fibrous  growths,  while  in 
Paget's  Disease  there  is  peri-lymphatic  fibrosis.  From  the 
experiments  in  vitro  of  Champy,  much  can  be  learnt  as  to 
the  relations  of  these  tissues.  He  demonstrated  that  when 
renal  tissue  was  grown  in  a  nutritive  plasm  it  showed, 
after  nine  hours,  new  tubules  of  a  primitive  order,  while 
still  further  away  from  the  original  section  the  epithelial 
cells  did  not  form  tubules,  and  were  of  a  simple  embryonic 
type.  This  can  only  be  attributed  to  loss  of  control  by 
normal  inhibitions.  When  the  same  worker  cultivated 


MALIGNANCY  43 

simpler  epithelium  and  connective  tissue  together,  the 
epithelial  cells  retained  their  characteristics;  but  when 
they  spread  and  grew  apart  from  the  connective  tissue  they 
lost  their  usual  order  and  appearance,  and  were  no  longer 
true  epithelium.  Only  one  inference  can  be  made.  It  is 
that  these  tissues  are  to  each  other  controlling  environment. 
Bayliss  says  in  commenting  on  this,  "  It  seems  that  cells, 
when  they  have  taken  special  functions  in  the  organism,  are 
normally  prevented  by  some  means  from  continuing  their 
primitive  multiplication,  and  that  when  this  influence  which 
restrains  their  growth  is  removed,  they  start  afresh  and 
produce  simple  embryonic  tissue.  There  is  significance  in 
these  facts  in  connection  with  the  formation  of  malignant 
tissues."  Assuredly  nothing  could  be  truer  and,  working 
with  the  analogy  of  the  endocrines,  we  are  forced  to 
conclude  that  like  effects  are  produced  by  like  causes. 
The  "  influence  "  at  work  must  be  some  product  of  the 
connective  tissue.  In  an  unstable  organism  any  depressing 
factor  inhibiting  the  activity  of  that  tissue,  such  as  un- 
eliminated  katabolic  toxins  accumulating  in  the  lymphatics 
and  connective  tissue  generally,  may  end  in  allowing  the 
explosive  epithelium  to  break  out  into  embryonic  activity. 
Such  instability  has  many  analogues  in  pathology. 

If  it  be  granted  that  these  facts  are  of  importance,  it 
seems  that  it  is  by  using  them,  and  by  following  the  indica- 
tions afforded  us  by  chorion-epithelioma  and  X-ray  cancer 
that  we  are  likely  to  solve  the  problem.  No  doubt  it  may 
seem  strange  to  bracket  such  diseases,  but  if  it  be  found 
that  two  disorders  so  different  in  origin  point  the  same  way 
we  cannot  be  far  from  the  truth.  In  X-rays  we  have  an 
exciting  cause  of  epithelial  overgrowth  which  not  only 
may,  but  if  sufficiently  applied,  must  produce  malignancy. 
The  symptoms  of  X-ray  dermatitis  are  those  of  profound 


44  WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

irritation,  epithelial  overgrowth,  attempts  at  repair,  which 
in  mild  cases  succeed  and  in  severe  ones  fail  disastrously, 
leaving  the  skin  in  epithelial  anarchy.  It  is  cracked  and 
fissured  in  every  direction,  heaped  up  in  one  place  and 
broken  down  in  another,  until  it  becomes  a  picture  of  dis- 
order rarely  seen  even  in  the  domain  of  dermatology.  Such 
an  exhibition  of  ineffective  energy  spent  at  the  surface  in 
vain  efforts  at  repair  makes  it  less  surprising  that  what  we 
may  call  the  potential  of  the  deep  epithelial  layers  of  the  epi- 
dermis becomes  abnormally  kinetic.  It  may  be  said  that  the 
cells  of  that  layer  grow  malignant  because  they  find  existence 
impossible  in  their  normal  position.  It  seems  certain  that 
in  large  doses  the  effect  of  the  rays  on  connective  tissue  is 
depressing  :  they  are,  at  any  rate,  totally  unable  at  the  last 
to  resist,  either  by  mechanical  or  chemical  means,  the  push 
of  the  escaping  epithelium.  It  is  stated  by  Darier  and 
Wolbarth  that  in  X-ray  dermatitis  there  is  hypertrophy  of 
the  epidermis,  and  pronounced  degeneration  of  the  corium, 
the  most  marked  result  being,  as  I  anticipated  before 
I  was  aware  of  the  actual  facts,  the  rarefaction  of  the  sub- 
epidermal  portion.  I  may  also  mention  the  work  of 
Lazarus-Barlow  and  his  co-workers  at  the  Middlesex 
Hospital.  He  points  out  that  in  certain  conditions  the 
influence  of  radium  rays  is  one  of  stimulation.  In  experi- 
ments on  rats,  which  produced  what  can  only  be  described 
as  squamous-cell  cancer,  it  is  especially  to  be  noted  that 
there  was  degeneration  of  the  subjacent  connective  tissue, 
which  even  extended  to  bone  and  cartilage.  Obviously 
radium  was  here  used  in  time  quantities,  which  carried 
stimulation  into  degeneration.  These  changes  are,  I  may 
perhaps  venture  to  say,  only  such  as  could  have  been  pre- 
dicted, and  I  did  in  fact  predict  them  before  being  aware 
of  his  resiilts.  The  same  can  be  said  of  those  obtained 


MALIGNANCY  45 

lately  by  Russ  and  his  colleagues  with  regard  to  lympho- 
cytosis,  leucopenia,  and  immunity.     They  add  immensely 
to  the  value  of  their  work  by  pointing  out  that  a  large 
lymphocyte  count  is  not  by  itself  sufficient  to  procure  or 
preserve  immunity.     If  the  general  connective  tissue  and 
its  catalysts  are  not  active  this  is  to  be  expected.     These 
catalysts,    immune    bodies,    or   anti-bodies,    are   almost 
certainly  connective-tissue  cell   products.     Russ,  indeed, 
says  there  is  some  as  yet  undetermined  relationship  between 
the  number  of  lymphocytes  and  the  occurrence  of  immunity. 
But  if  cancer  actually  depends  on  the  weakening  of  con- 
nective-tissue cells  of  all  kinds,  the  relationship  is  no  longer 
undetermined.     We  have   a  real  explanation  why  large 
doses  of  X-rays,  which  are  more  or  less  fatal  to  lymphocytes, 
destroy  immunity,  and  we  get  a  clue  to  the   reason   for 
small  or  stimulating    doses   conferring  it  on  susceptible 
animals.     Hernaman-Johnson  states  definitely  that  clinical 
observation  and  microscopic  research  show  that  carcinoma 
is  favourably  influenced  as  the  result  of  this  dual  action. 
Mathematically  speaking,  the  good  influence  of  small  doses 
acts  as  a  "  couple,"  the  peccant  tissue  is  inhibited,  and 
the  limiting  or  resisting  tissue  is  stimulated  to  activity. 
With  such  phenomena  before  us  there  is  no  need  to  posit 
some  unknown  cause.     In  all  explanation  it  is  illicit  to 
import  the   unknown  when   the  known  can  be  made  to 
account  for  the  facts.     If  radium  and  X-rays,  according 
to  their  dosage  and  application,  can  cause  different  effects 
in  both  tissues,  and  by  restoring  or  impairing  them  produce 
amelioration  or  further  destruction,  the  case  for  infection 
falls  to  the  ground.     It  is  also  said  by  Knox  that  the 
curative  effect  of  radium  depends  in  many  cases  on  the 
Becquerel  rays  stimulating  the  connective  tissue  and  pro- 
ducing fibrosis.     Under  the  battery   which  brings  about 


46  WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

these  results  it  can  hardly  be  thought  that  any  specific 
cancer  protozoon  continues  to  live.  Those  who  believe 
in  the  infection  theory  must  take  up  the  position  that  the 
agent  is  everywhere  in  the  body  or  the  environment  ready 
to  infect  the  patient  in  the  so-called  pre-cancerous  stage 
of  X-ray  malignancy.  Such  a  hypothesis  is  a  multi- 
plication of  causes.  The  only  true  pre-cancerous  stage  is 
seen  when  the  underlying  connective  tissue  weakens  or 
rarefies.  This  is  assuredly  the  case  in  leucoplakia,  although 
I  have  not  so  far  been  able  to  see  sections  proving  it. 
The  destructive  powers  of  the  X-rays  on  connective 
tissues,  in  combination  with  the  resistance  of  the  skin, 
are  sufficient  to  account  for  the  results.  In  what  other 
way  can  we  interpret  the  conclusions  reached  by  J.  B. 
Murphy  and  Sturm  ?  These  workers  found  that  the 
entire  lymphoid  tissue  of  the  body  could  be  destroyed 
in  from  seven  to  twenty-one  days  by  repeated  small  doses 
of  X-rays.  In  such  a  condition  the  theory  of  this  paper 
would  infer  that  an  immense  reduction  of  organic  resist- 
ance followed.  What  do  we  find  ?  First,  there  is  a  greatly 
lessened  resistance  to  alien  implants  ;  second,  a  lowered 
resistance  to  cancer  grafts ;  third,  the  destruction  of 
acquired  immunity  to  cancer  ;  and,  fourth,  a  lowered 
resistance  to  the  tubercle  bacillus  and  other  infective  agents. 
Murphy,  however,  remarks  that  the  chief  objection  to 
accepting  the  lymphatics  as  a  great  factor  of  resistance  to 
cancer  growth  is  that  the  lymph  nodes  are  common  points 
for  metastatic  growths.  This  appears  to  be  no  such 
objection  as  he  imagines  since  the  very  existence  of  the 
primary  focus  is  in  all  probability  due  to  general  loss  of  tone 
of  all  connective-tissue  cells,  stationary  or  wandering, 
highly  evolved  or  semi-embryonic.  I  draw  the  con- 
clusion with  confidence  that,  as  with  chorion-epithelioma, 


MALIGNANCY  47 

where  infection  is  negatived  by  the  whole  of  the  pheno- 
mena of  ovum  and  uterine  interaction,  X-ray  malignancy 
and  allied  phenomena  point  straight  to  the  conclusion 
that  the  explanation  of  cancer  lies  in  the  relations  of  epithe- 
lium and  connective  tissue;  that  benignity  is  a  normal 
reaction  and  malignity  a  failure ;  that  irritation  is  only  a 
means  by  which  the  normal  reactions  of  these  tissues  are 
destroyed ;  and  that  infections  are  only  causes  so  far  as  they 
excite  or  depress  and  thereby  destroy  the  balance  of  tissues 
which  exercise  outside  control  by  their  mechanical  nature 
and  products.  I  have  so  far  found  no  theory  but  the  one 
here  advocated  that  reconciles  all  these  phenomena,  and 
it  is  a  fact  that  it  enabled  me  to  prophesy  many  observa- 
tions quite  unknown  to  me  at  one  period  of  investigation. 
Conclusions  of  this  kind  are  necessarily  as  relevant  to 
sarcoma  as  to  carcinoma.  The  immense  activity  of  con- 
nective tissue  in  youth  suggests  that  it  might  at  any  age  get 
out  of  hand.  Fowls  seem  specially  liable  to  it.  Luckily 
they  mostly  die  young.  An  aged  fowl,  which  should  be 
liable  to  carcinoma,  is  a  rare  object.  As  a  domestic 
animal  which,  owing  to  the  caprice  of  breeders,  is  in  a 
peculiarly  fluent  condition,  it  is  particularly  liable  to  loss 
of  balance.  Uterine  or  mammary  cancer  is  rare  in  bitches, 
a  fact  very  properly  attributed  to  their  commonly  dying 
before  involution  sets  in.  It  may  also  be  due  to  their 
habits,  since  they  are  not  so  much  exposed  to  sexual  stimuli 
as  human  beings,  who  only  practice  continence  during  the 
oestrus.  It  is  said  that  castrated  animals  are  more  liable 
to  malignant  diseases  than  others.  They  have  been  thrown 
out  of  normal  balance  by  operation.  The  peculiar  deadli- 
ness  of  sarcoma  seems  natural  enough  if  we  remember  that 
it  is  to  connective  tissue  that  all  repair  is  due.  It  is  a 
case  of  "  quis  custodiet  ?  "  when  the  guardian  tissue 


48  WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

becomes  anarchic.  Whatever  influence  epithelium  may 
have  upon  it,  epithelial  tissue  cells  cannot  surround,  or 
attempt  to  encapsule,  aberrant  connective  tissue,  for  as 
soon  as  they  proliferate  freely  they  are  themselves  malignant. 
It|seems  to  me  that  these  views  make  it  easy  to  under- 
stand why  a  healed  gastric  or  other  ulcer  may  become  the 
originating  point  of  cancer.  That  there  is  ever  an  ulcer 
at  all  shows  that  connective-tissue  reactions  are  weak. 
When  such  an  ulcer  heals  there  is  scar  tissue  with  epithelium 
already  some  stages  on  the  way  to  embryonic  epithelium. 
Ex  hypothesi,  the  underlying  fibrous  tissue  is  not  very 
resistant,  and  when  the  irritation  continues  which  first 
caused  the  ulcer  the  over-stimulated  and  already  partly 
wild  epithelium  proliferates,  and  is  not  properly  inhibited. 
Given  such  conditions,  carcinoma  can  be  predicted.  The 
results  are  no  longer  a  puzzle. 

That  benign  tumours  should  often  become  malignant 
is,  according  to  the  theory  advocated,  just  what  might 
be  expected.  With  senescence  there  is  in  the  whole  body 
an  increase  of  static  elements  as  compared  with  the 
cytoplasm  ;  a  tendency  to  rigidity,  and  a  loss  of  the  federal 
unity  of  the  body  which  we  call  health.  There  is  less 
response  to  regulative  stimulation  or  inhibition,  and  less  or 
more  of  the  normal  hormones  to  respond  to.  The  result 
should  naturally  be  an  increase  in  the  autonomy  of  separated 
parts,  and  the  increasing  dominance  of  any  tissue  which 
is  in  excess.  That  the  chief  tendency  of  malignancy  is 
towards  carcinoma,  is  what  we  should  expect  at  an  age 
when  epithelium  in  any  case  tends  to  become  rampant, 
but  that  a  benign  connective-tissue  tumour,  in  which  the 
epithelial  portions  are  at  a  minimum,  should  at  last  break 
bounds  is  by  no  means  surprising.  When  thinking  upon 
such  lines,  and  dealing  with  phenomena  of  senescence,  it  is 


MALIGNANCY  49 

a  not  uninteresting  speculation  if  we  venture  to  attribute  to 
a  temporary  rejuvenescence  the  partial  cures  or  allevia- 
tions of  symptoms  often  found  when  a  new  empirical  remedy 
is  tried  in  inoperable  cases.  To  inspire  hope  by  whatever 
means  is  a  function  of  the  physician  and,  to  do  so  is,  in  the 
language  of  the  physicists,  to  free  energy.  The  hopeless 
patient,  when  concentred  on  his  symptoms  and  his  feelings, 
is  doubly  the  host  of  a  parasite,  his  energy  is  bound  within 
a  narrow  circle,  his  horizon  of  life  contracted  to  a  mere 
point.  As  a  result  his  functions  fail :  he  eliminates 
less  and  less  toxin,  the  static  elements  increase  till  the  cyto- 
plasm of  his  whole  organism  is  as  unable  to  cope  with  its 
work  as  his  cerebral  cytoplasm  is  to  face  the  general  situa- 
tion. If  he  is  afforded  hope  in  any  way  whatsoever  the 
engine  works  again :  there  is  at  least  a  temporary  rejuven- 
escence, and  the  partially  freed  tissues  tend  to  resume  their 
functions.  At  such  a  stage  the  progress  of  a  tumour  ma^ 
be  arrested  by  the  renewed  action  of  connective  tissue  or 
epithelium,  or  of  the  general  regulative  metabolism  of  the 
whole  body. 

Though  cancer  "  cures  "  may  thus  exercise  a  favourable, 
if  brief,  influence  on  those  who  suffer,  their  number  and 
character  bear  bitter  witness  to  the  confusion  of  the  whole 
subject.  In  theory  I  have  been  unable  to  find  any  general 
principle  at  work.  If  it  were  not  that  in  looking  back 
upon  the  past  of  pathology  it  is  seen  that  most  advances 
have  been  made  rather  by  trial  and  error,  than  by  any 
great  grasp  of  the  human  mind,  those  who  are  not  wedded 
to  one  particular  theory  might  indeed  feel  hopeless.  Amid 
the  din  of  battle,  the  confusion  and  the  shouting,  it  is  hard 
to  discover  order.  Yet  to  those  who  are  somewhat  with- 
drawn from  the  arena,  facts  do  sometimes  emerge  which 
seem  of  real  relevance.  The  long-known  occasional  cure 
4 


50  WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

of  cancer  due  to  erysipelas  is  one  of  them,  and  the  very 
failure  of  Coley's  fluid,  composed  of  the  toxins  of  5.  ery- 
sipelatosus  and  B.  prodigiosus,  to  fulfil  the  hopes  of  its 
inventor,  may,  if  considered  in  a  proper  light,  be  of  the 
greatest  assistance.  That  these  toxins,  without  the  acute 
attack,  fail  of  their  purpose,  suggests  very  forcibly  that  it  is 
not  such  toxins  which  inhibit  the  growth  of  the  aberrant 
tissue,  but  that  it  is  overcome  by  the  immense  reactions  of 
the  connective  tissue  which  result  in  the  cure  of  the  acute 
infection.  So  far  as  Coley's  fluid  excites  the  connective 
tissue,  so  far  it  may  possibly  do  good.  Such  a  view  is 
greatly  strengthened  by  the  experiments  of  Ehrlich  and 
Apolant,  if  they  can  be  regarded  as  authenticated.  This 
is,  I  think,  thought  by  many  not  to  be  the  case ;  but  their 
results  fall  in  so  completely  with  the  views  advocated  in  this 
paper,  that  I  find  it  impossible  to  disregard  them.  That  a 
transplanted  mouse  carcinoma  should  in  certain  cases 
produce  sarcoma  seemed  to  some  impossible  ;  and  to  some  a 
proof  that  the  transplanted  tissue  was  really  sarcomatous. 
Yet  if  it  is  granted  for  the  moment  that  epithelium  and  con- 
nective tissue  live  in  symbiotic  hostility,  such  a  phenomenon 
is  by  no  means  so  surprising  as  it  looks.  It  is  but  re- 
action overbalancing  itself.  On  continued  transplantation 
with  one  strain  it  is  said  that  the  connective  tissue  overcame 
the  epithelium,  till  it  at  last  consisted  of  scattered  cells  only, 
so  that  finally  the  graft  was  a  pure  sarcoma.  In  another 
strain  this  "  power  to  induce  sarcoma  "  was  lost,  and  the 
tumour  remained  epithelial  in  character.  The  phrase 
"  power  to  induce  sarcoma  "  is,  to  say  the  least  of  it, 
unhappy.  By  the  phenomenon,  if  correctly  reported,  we 
have  to  understand  that  the  host's  connective  tissue  did  not 
react.  No  explanation  of  these  observations  is  to  be  found 
in  any  theory  but  that  of  the  action  and  reaction  of  the  two 


MALIGNANCY  51 

tissues  concerned.  When  their  balance  is  upset,  one  pro- 
liferates abnormally.  Anything  that  throws  the  organism 
out  of  gear  is  a  possible  factor  of  malignancy,  and  that  is  the 
reason  why,  with  the  increase  of  wealth,  a  new  and  highly 
varied  environment,  which  tends  to  produce  variation, 
makes  for  the  increase  of  such  disease. 

If  the  value  of  a  theory  depends  on  the  aid  it  gives  in 
explanation,  the  one  here  advocated  certainly  helps  to 
make  it  clearer  why  some  forms  of  malignancy  are  more 
deadly  and  liable  to  metastasis  than  others.  So  far  there 
has  been  no  real  explanation  of  the  fact  that  the  forms  of 
it  which  deviate  most  widely  from  the  tissue  of  origin  are 
most  rapid  and  destructive.  It  has  remained  an  observa- 
tion, and  to  say  this  extreme  aberrancy  from  type 
renders  it  more  deadly  is  only  to  repeat  in  another 
form  what  has  been  said  before.  But  if  it  is  under- 
stood that  the  immediate  and  total  somatic  environ- 
ment determine  cell  character,  it  is  obvious  that  extreme 
aberrancy  implies  that  the  determining  tissues  generally 
are  weakened  to  an  extreme  degree,  and  that  any 
cancer  growth  or  embolus  will  nowhere  meet  with  much 
resistance.  That  environment  has  definite  results  is  well 
known.  In  speaking  of  the  relatively  more  deadly  femoral 
sarcoma,  as  compared  with  a  similar  tumour  in  the  tibia, 
Bland-Sutton  says :  "  This  would  appear  to  indicate  that 
the  two  tumours,  though  structurally  alike,  really  have 
different  causes,  yet  these  are  facts  which  lead  us  to 
suppose  that  variations  in  tissue  actually  constitute  a 
different  environment."  He  adds  that  echinococcus  disease 
is  the  only  condition  which  supports  this  view.  Yet  surely 
in  studying  all  diseases  we  are  compelled  to  come  to  the 
conclusion  that  different  reactions,  in  different  patients,  with 
the  same  disorder,  can  only  be  due  to  their  bodies  consti- 


52     WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

tuting  a  different  environment.  Further  investigation  will 
almost  certainly  show  that  there  is  some  reaction  differ- 
ence in  the  region  of  the  femur  when  compared  with  that 
of  the  tibia.  The  comparative  immunity  of  joints  from  a 
burrowing  sarcoma  supports  the  view  that  some  tissues  have 
a  more  powerful  resistance  than  others.  It  may  be  that  the 
great  resistance  of  cartilage  is  due  to  its  lack  of  channels ; 
but  it  is  far  more  likely  that  it  is  due  to  the  cell  products 
of  its  closely  arranged  cells.  In  studying  the  various  types 
of  malignancy  we  cannot  but  be  struck  by  the  varying 
amounts  of  normal,  or  fairly  normal,  connective  tissue 
about  them.  That  the  small,  round-celled  sarcoma  should 
be  more  deadly  than  most  of  the  other  varieties  is  what 
would  be  expected  from  the  scantiness  of  the  still  growing  or 
surviving  stroma.  Such  varieties  as  are  more  difficult  to 
distinguish  from  normal  cells  seem  obviously  those  in 
which  the  whole  of  the  normal  inhibition  of  the  environ- 
ment has  not  been  overcome.  These  are  points  in  which  a 
considerable  knowledge  of  biology  might  be  of  assistance  to 
pathologists. 

While  it  is  impossible  to  deal  here  in  detail  with  every 
kind  of  tumour,  something  may  be  said  of  embryomas  and 
their  malignant  forms.  Obscure  and  difficult  as  the  subject 
is,  there  seems  reason  to  believe  that  when  it  is  understood 
many  of  the  basal  problems  of  biology  will  be  solved  with 
it.  That  they  are  due  to  some  ovum,  or  embryonic  ovarian 
tissue,  developing  parthenogenetically,  seems  more  than 
likely.  Shattock's  remarkable  paper  on  these  tumours 
supports  the  view  that  embryonic  ova  may  be  fertilized  by 
errant  spermatozoa ;  but  there  are  many  reasons  for  coming 
to  the  conclusion  that  an  embryonic  "  rest  "  may  develop 
without  such  assistance.  Such  views  do  not  account  for 
infantile  feminine  or  testicular  embryomas.  It  is  more 


MALIGNANCY  58 

likely  that  any  epithelium  in  regions  where  reproductive 
processes  commence  may,  under  some  abnormal  stimula- 
tion, develop  incompletely  determined  epithelial  products 
or  rudimentary  organs.  The  prodigious  fertilit}'  of  em- 
bryomas  in  such  products  suggests  that  the  imperfect 
parent  tissue  is  doing  its  best  to  be  normal,  if  the  phrase  is 
permissible ;  but  that  such  a  result  is  impossible,  owing  to 
the  necessary  lack  of  normal  excitation  and  inhibition, 
i.e.  of  the  usual  environment.  That  a  simple  product  of 
epithelium,  such  as  hair,  may  be  perfect  is  not  surprising. 
The  epithelium  from  which  it  grows  is  practically  the  only 
environmental  stimulus  it  requires.  That  teeth,  on  the 
other  hand,  are  rudimentary,  misshaped,  and  monstrous, 
may  be  regarded  as  the  result  of  their  lacking  a  normal 
environment.  That  embryomas  are  frequently  very 
deadly  is  what  may  be  expected  from  the  possibilities  of 
the  unspecialized  tissues  from  which  they  originate.  The 
study  of  interaction  of  the  various  tissues  should  include 
far  more  than  the  endocrine  organs,  since  it  is  more 
than  likely  to  solve  the  problems  of  heredity,  as  well 
as  those  of  malignant  growth.  The  divisions  between 
physiology,  pathology,  and  biology  are  responsible  in  a 
very  large  measure  for  the  slowness  with  which  they 
all  advance. 

It  follows  from  all  these  considerations  that  it  must 
not  be  supposed  that  reaction  against  one  kind  of  over- 
growth or  the  other  is  due  entirely  to  the  tissues  principally 
concerned.  Such  a  view  would  be  a  partial  denial  of  the 
entire  independence  of  the  whole  organic  federation. 
There  is  reason  to  suppose  that  the  blood-stream  is  hostile 
to  intrusive  epithelium.  Small  cancerous  emboli  excite 
thrombosis,  and  are  sometimes  buried,  and  perhaps 
destroyed,  in  a  blood  clot  in  which  lymphocytes  are 


54     WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

probably  very  prominent.  The  erosive  agent  of  the 
chorionic  villus  is  in  its  multi-nuclear  cap,  or  giant  cell, 
sometimes  without  warrant  called  a  plasmodium.  Pro- 
perly speaking  a  plasmodium  consists  of  fused  cells,  and 
there  is  reason  to  suppose  that  a  giant  cell  is  one  which 
accumulates  nuclear  material  without  normal  fission. 
If  we  regard  the  nucleus  not  as  a  "  director,"  which  is  a 
common  psychological  fallacy,  but  as  a  workshop  con- 
taining the  non-living  tools,  weapons,  or  catalysts,  by 
which  the  cytoplasm  works,  it  is  easy  to  understand  that 
when  there  is  active  use  and  much  waste  of  such  tools, 
mitosis  does  not  occur.  In  normal  gestation,  when  uterine 
reaction  is  complete  and  erosion  ceases,  there  is  probably 
no  longer  any  multi-nucleated  cell,  for  where  such  are 
found  pathological  conditions  exist.  If  we  knew  when 
such  a  cell  is  again  formed  in  fragments  of  the  decidua 
we  should  be  able  to  point  to  the  very  moment  when 
chorion-epithelioma  starts.  It  begins  when  the  uterus 
has  involuted,  and  is  no  longer  in  its  highly  developed 
and  vascular  form.  I  say  highly  vascular  because,  as 
remarked  before,  it  seems  that  the  blood  plasm  itself 
exerts  a  direct  inhibitory  influence  on  malignant  cells. 
When  considering  this  aspect  of  the  problem  I  came, 
independently  of  any  suggestion,  to  the  conclusion  that 
in  some  carcinomatous  conditions  I  should  expect  to 
find  multi-nuclear  epithelial  cells,  closely  resembling  the 
cap  of  the  trophoblast.  This  inference  was  confirmed 
by  Mr.  Sampson  Handley,  who  told  me,  not  at  all  to  my 
surprise,  that  whereas  no  such  cells  are  formed  at  the 
distal  part  of  a  carcinoma  while  still  advancing  in  the 
lymphatics,  they  are  to  be  found  as  soon  as  the  growth 
comes  in  contact  with  the  blood.  This  implies  that  there 
is  a  new  reaction  in  the  growth,  and  such  a  reaction  seems 


MALIGNANCY  55 

obviously  due  to  the  inhibiting  action  of  the  blood-stream 
and  the  catalysts  it  carries. 

If  these  conclusions  are  of  any  weight,  and  it  is  allowed 
that  malignancy  is  a  failure  of  developmental  machinery, 
we  are  impelled  to  ask  if  there  is  any  one  gland  in  the 
human  body,  for  instance,  which,  on  the  principles  of 
interactions  between  epithelium  and  connective  tissue, 
may  be  more  to  blame  than  another.  The  thyroid  is 
suspect  since  it  is  frequently  in  a  morbid  condition  in 
malignant  states ;  but  no  proof  has  been  adduced  of  its 
responsibility.  There  are,  moreover,  much  greater 
reasons  for  suspecting  another  gland,  directly  responsible 
for  definite  under-  or  overgrowth,  such  as  the  pituitary 
body,  since  its  direct  connection  with  bone  development 
is  now  admitted  on  all  hands.  But  if  the  pituitary  can 
determine  infantilism,  gigantism,  and  acromegaly  by  over- 
growth or  failure  of  bone-growth,  and  growth  in  all  tissues 
generally,  it  is  hardly  extravagant  to  suggest  that  it  may 
be  directly  responsible  for  bone  sarcomas.  If  this  is  true 
we  might  then  call  sarcoma  of  the  bones  "  local  explosive 
osteomegalies."  If  there  is  such  a  thing  as  anarchy 
among  the  osteoblasts  and  osteoclasts,  in  which  each  under 
abnormal  stimulation  functioned  regardless  of  normal 
inhibitions,  we  should  expect  such  phenomena  as  we 
see  in  femoral  sarcoma.  It  is  at  least  a  possible  explana- 
tion to  suggest  that  the  deadly  character  of  such  a  sarcoma 
is  due  to  a  breakdown  in  a  bone  exposed,  perhaps,  to 
greater  single  stresses  than  any  in  the  body.  But  if  the 
pituitary  can  influence  one  form  of  connective  tissue, 
however  highly  specialized,  it  may  equally  influence 
other  forms.  From  one  point  of  view,  the  beginnings 
of  all  late  sarcomas,  not  only  those  of  bone,  might  be 
regarded  as  cases  of  overdone  repair,  while  those  of  early 


56  WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

life  might  be  looked  on  as  the  result  of  over-stimulated 
activities  in  cases  which  under  other  conditions  might 
have  been  the  subjects  of  gigantism.  Any  glandular 
secretion  may  very  conceivably  have  abnormal  local 
effects.  But,  if  early  or  late  hyper-pituitarism  has  relation 
to  sarcomas,  hypo-pituitarism  may  equally  well  result 
at  any  time  of  life  in  under-inhibition  of  epithelium,  a 
state,  according  to  the  theory  here  supported,  which 
seems  a  necessary  preliminary  to  cancer. 

While  I  offer  these  views  with  the  greatest  diffidence, 
I  may  remark  that  though  their  acceptance  might  lead  to 
further  discoveries,  and  even  to  cure,  their  rejection  would 
by  no  means  invalidate  my  conclusions  as  to  the  relations 
of  the  two  great  tissues  concerned.  A  breakdown  of  one 
or  the  other  may  conceivably  be  determined  by  any  dis- 
order of  one  or  more  of  the  endocrine  glands.  Such  sug- 
gestions may,  at  any  rate,  lead  to  definite  observations  of 
the  pituitary  being  made  in  fatal  cases  of  malignancy,  a 
thing,  so  far  as  I  know,  which  has  not  been  done.  If 
any  changes  in  it  could  be  detected,  they  might  offer  a 
rational  basis  for  therapeutics,  though  it  is  highly  probable 
that  a  morbid  secretion  without  visible  change  might  be 
responsible  for  invasive  tissues. 

To  put  aside  such  speculations  for  a  moment,  and  return 
to  the  general  aspect  of  the  problem,  it  must  be  owned  that 
the  confusion  in  theory  is  more  than  equalled  by  that  in 
experimental  therapeutics.  Outside  of  surgery,  which  with 
radiology  seems  to  present  the  patient  with  his  only  chance 
of  prolonged  life,  most  attempts  at  cure  appear  quackery,  or 
empiricism  run  mad.  Preparations  of  all  kinds  of  tissues 
have  been  injected,  and  the  results  discredit  optimism 
itself.  Yet  if  it  is  agreed  that  the  fundamental  principles 
of  life  are  inter-organic  stimulation  and  inhibition,  and  that 


MALIGNANCY  57 

want  of  order  is  the  result  of  failure  in  metabolic  regulators, 
such  views  lead  at  once  to  considered  experiment  The 
arguments  used  to  establish  this  theory  may  be  deemed 
insufficient  as  proof  yet,  if  they  lead  to  trial,  verification 
may  follow.  Such  trials  should  be  directed  to  assisting  the 
reaction  of  all  connective  tissue  in  cases  of  carcinoma,  and 
that  of  epithelium  in  those  of  sarcoma.  How  this  can  best 
be  done  is  for  the  physiologist,  radiologist,  and  pathologist 
to  determine ;  but  even  if  the  suggestions  as  to  the  pituitary 
prove  to  be  without  foundation,  it  may  be  suggested  that 
after  the  excision  of  a  carcinoma  efforts  should  be  made  to 
irritate  or  stimulate  the  connective  tissue  in  the  neighbour- 
hood of  the  removed  focus.  We  know  now  that  this  may  be 
done  by  radiation,  while  the  injection  of  doses  of  epithelial 
juices  might  assist  the  process.  Since  many  forms  of 
cell  proliferation  are  inhibited  by  their  own  products,  it 
is  not  unlikely  that  aberrant  epithelium  may  be  rendered 
inactive  by  injections  of  healthy  epithelial  products,  or  by 
prepared  and  filtered  cancer  juice.  With  sarcoma  similar 
trials  might  be  made,  and  in  the  meantime,  while  such 
experiments  are  in  progress,  on  operated  or  inoperable  cases, 
it  should  be  the  task  of  the  physiologist  or  bio-chemist  to 
separate  from  epithelium  and  connective  tissue  the  chemical 
compound,  or  complex  of  compounds,  by  which  they  exer- 
cise their  direct  influence.  Difficult  as  such  a  task  may 
prove,  the  labour  might  well  be  worth  undertaking,  when  we 
consider  its  possible  results.  In  any  case,  much  might  be 
learned  by  the  further  study  of  normal  epithelium  and  con- 
nective tissue  in  nutrient  media,  while  they  are  subjected 
to  X-rays  or  radium,  or  both,  or  to  the  influences  of  various 
endocrine  secretions  or  toxins.  Malignant  tissues  in  vitro 
should  be  observed  under  similar  conditions.  We  might 
then  learn  how  and  why  certain  epithelial  cells  become 


58  WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

multi-nuclear,  and  whether  such  can  be  inhibited  by  the 
products  of  connective  tissue,  or  of  lymphocytes  or 
lymphoid  tissue.  Even  if  little  were  learnt,  a  result  I 
refuse  to  contemplate,  the  result  would  be  that  one  field 
of  research  had  been  worked  out  on  scientific  lines.  Such 
research,  however,  would  almost  certainly  suggest  that 
these  diseases  are  indeed  diseases  of  development,  and  must 
be  combated  by  rendering  the  organism  stable  rather  than 
by  seeking  any  single  cure,  although  it  is  by  no  means 
impossible  that  some  simple  and  direct  cure  may  be  found. 
If  it  were  discovered  that  some  drug  or  drugs  could 
stimulate  or  inhibit  epithelial  and  connective-tissue 
growth  the  results  might  be  of  the  greatest  service. 

If  the  results  provisionally  arrived  at  are  summarized, 
it  may  be  said  that : 

1.  The  general  biological  conception  of  the  organism 
as  a  federation  of  organs  and  tissues,  living  in  symbiosis,  and 
yet  fundamentally  hostile,  or  "  selfish,"  is  helpful  in  the 
study  of  disease. 

2.  If  atrophy  or  hypertrophy  of  the  endocrines  accounts 
for  certain  disorders,  the  failure  of  normal  relations  between 
less  specialized  tissues  may  account  for  others. 

3.  Order  does  not  exist  without  control,  and  the  essence 
of  malignancy  is  lack  of  control. 

4.  There  is  reason    to    suppose    that  epithelium  and 
connective  tissue  influence  and  control  each  other,  and  that 
their  failure  to  do  so  is  the  real  cause  of  malignancy. 

5.  Irritation,  including  the  effects  of  infection,  acts  by 
destroying  such  balanced  action. 

6.  The  phenomena  observed  in  the  chorionic  tropho- 
blast,  in    chorion-epithelioma,   in    X-ray  dermatitis  and 
cancer  as  well  as  the  experimental  growth  of  the  two  tissues 
liable  to  malignancy,  support  the  view  of  this  relation- 


MALIGNANCY  59 

ship  between  epithelium  and  connective  tissue,  and  suggest 
that  a  morbid  condition  of  the  pituitary  may  be  a  funda- 
mental cause  of  the  disease. 

7.  Malignancy  is  thus  brought  into  relation  with  the 
phenomena  of  growth,  and  can  be  classed  with  develop- 
mental diseases,  such  as  those  due  to  endocrine  atrophy 
or  hypertrophy. 

8.  Research  should  be  directed  to  the  discovery  of  the 
tissue  products  or  secretions  by  which  epithelium  and 
connective  tissue  preserve  their  individuality  and  prevent 
reversion  in  each  other. 

REFERENCES. 

ADAMI,  J.  G. — "  Medical  Sidelights  on  Evolution,"  1919. 
BAINBRIDGE,  W.  S. — "  Cancer  Problem,"  New  York,  1914. 
BAYLISS,  W.  M. — "  Principles  of  General  Physiology,"  1915. 
BLAND-SUTTON,  Sir  JOHN. — •"  Tumours,"  1918,  Lecture    III., 

Chem.Journ.,  vol.  xxx.  pp.  186-208. 
BUTLIN,  Sir  H. — "  Unicellula  Cancri,"  1912. 
DARIER  and  WOLBARTH. — Quoted  by  Hartzell,  M.  B.,  "  Diseases 

of  the  Skin,"  1917. 
ERLICH,  P.,  and  APOLANT,  H. — "  Mouse-Tumours,"  Berlin  Klin. 

Woche,  July  1905. 

GREEN,  C.  E. — "  Cancer  Problem,"  1919. 
HANDLEY,  SAMPSON. — "Melanotic  Sarcoma,"  Hunterian  Lecture, 

1907,  Lancet,  London,  1905,  vol.  i.  p.  909  ;    ibid.,  1907, 

vol.  i.  p.  930;  "Paget's  Disease,"  Brit.  Journ.  of  Surgery, 

vol.  vii.  No.  26,  1919. 
HERNAMAN- JOHNSON,  F. — "  Comparative  Value  of  X-rays  and 

Radium  in  Malignant  Disease,"  Aberdeen,  B.M.A. 
KETTLE,  E.  H. — "Pathology  of  Tumours,"  1916;  Path.  Sect., 

R.S.M.,  April  15,  1919. 
KNOX,  ROBERT. — "  Radiology,"  1918. 
MURPHY,    J.    B.,    and  STURM,   E. — Journ.  Exper.  Med.,  Jan. 

1919,  iii. 
PAGET,  Sir  JAMES. — "  Lectures  on  Surgical  Pathology,"  1853. 


60     WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

Russ,  SYDNEY,  and  CHAMBERS,  H. — "  Exper.  Studies  with  Small 
Doses  of  X-rays,"  Lancet,  London,  April  26,  1909. 

SHATTOCK,  S.  G. — "  Ovarian  Teratomata,"  Lancet,  London, 
1918,  vol.  i.  p.  479. 

SPENCER,  HERBERT  B. — "  Lettsomian  Lecture,"  Brit.  Med. 
Journ.,  London,  Feb.  21,  1920. 


CHAPTER    III 

REPAIR  IN  EVOLUTION  l 

dissatisfaction  with  much  orthodox  biological 
A  opinion  is  growing  can  hardly  be  denied.  Not  a 
little  of  this  feeling  is  due  to  the  fact  that  what  is  often 
given  as  explanation  cannot  be  resolved  into  factors 
capable  of  appreciation,  and,  possibly,  of  measurement  by 
the  intellect.  The  theory  has  to  be  accepted  as  more  or 
less  a  matter  of  faith,  and  the  very  definite  relations  of 
biology  to  the  allied  sciences  are  almost  entirely  ignored. 
If  the  views  advanced  in  the  previous  chapters  carry  any 
weight,  this  alone  is  sufficient  to  account  for  discontent. 
Where  there  is  a  general  tendency  to  rely  on  authority, 
speculation  is  discouraged,  for  orthodoxy  everywhere 
rests  on  the  native  conservatism  of  man,  and  even  the 
revolutionary  is  at  last  capable  of  fatigue.  As  a 
result,  tentative  hypotheses  offered  by  the  great  leaders 
tend  to  become  objects  of  worship,  and  among  their 
less  enterprising  followers  there  arises  a  more  or  less  fervent 
conviction  that,  however  unsatisfactory  they  appear  now, 
they  will  presently  become  demonstration.  Thus  the 
theory  of  the  germ-plasm,  even  in  its  later  modified  form, 
seems  held  too  dogmatically  by  many  :  the  "  nature  "  of 

1  V.  "  The    Function  of    Pathological    States  in   Evolution,"     Zool. 
Soc.  Proc.  1918.     The  paper  has  been  added  to  and  altered. 


62  WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

inherited  living  matter  accounts  for  every  organ  as  it 
appears ;  while  all  changes  are  due  to  obscure  variations 
of  an  advantageous  kind  which  give  the  survivors  in  the 
struggle  a  better  chance.  On  analysis,  such  opinions  do 
not  seem  truly  scientific,  for  the  "  nature  "  of  the  germ- 
plasm  can  barely  be  distinguished  from  the  directing 
entelechy  of  Driesch,  and  if  the  Weismannian  cloud  of 
ids  and  biophors  is  now  somewhat  condensed,  the  magic 
determinant  still  remains  in  a  concealed  vitalism  which  is 
exactly  analogous,  as  regards  the  organism,  to  pantheism 
as  regards  the  universe.  Nor,  if  we  are  told  with  certainty 
that  altered  characteristics  are  not  transmitted,  is  the 
theory  of  small  advantageous  variations  much  more 
satisfactory,  if  we  know  neither  how  they  come,  nor  how 
they  are  inherited.  To  say  so  much  must  not  be  regarded 
as  treating  with  disrespect  its  great  author,  without  whom 
we  might  still  be  wandering  in  the  barren  field  of  teleology. 
To  regard  these  theories  as  hasty  and,  perhaps,  un- 
sound explanations  is  not  to  accept  without  scrutiny 
the  theory  of  the  transmission  of  acquired,  or  modified, 
characteristics.  Though  this  is  a  view  that  can  be 
defended  on  the  physico-chemical  grounds  of  catalysts 
which  are  measurable  determinants  of  a  really  scientific 
order,  experiments  to  prove  the  fact  must  take  a  very 
long  time,  and  we  are  compelled  to  rely  on  other  methods 
of  proof.  That  the  experiments  of  Tower  and  Kammerer, 
for  instance,  suggest  the  transmission  of  modifications 
cannot  be  denied.  Such  as  oppose  the  general  view  that 
the  environment  has  thus  an  inheritable  moulding  influence 
on  the  organism,  seem  to  reply  that  those  are  only  rare 
and  doubtful  cases,  whereas  the  theory  of  inherited 
advantageous  variations,  whether  continuous  or  dis- 
continuous, can  be  made  responsible  for  the  whole  of  the 


REPAIR  IN  EVOLUTION  63 

phenomena.  As  the  conclusion  is  gradually  being 
strengthened  that  large  variations  of  a  Mendelian  character 
deal  with  other  characteristics  than  those  which  are  racial, 
all  who  rely  on  inherited  spontaneous  variations  are  forced 
back  on  the  Darwinian  view  that  small  variations  can 
gradually,  if  of  an  advantageous  kind,  convert  one  species 
into  two  or  more,  and  that  all  living  characteristics,  or 
organs  themselves,  are  due  to  such  a  cumulative  effect. 
It  is,  of  course,  inferred  and  definitely  stated  by  Darwin, 
that  any  variation  in  the  least  degree  injurious  would 
inevitably  be  destroyed.  It  is  this  statement  I  propose 
to  examine,  and  for  the  purpose  of  such  an  inquiry  it 
must  be  clearly  understood  what  is  meant  by  the  word 
"  disadvantageous  "  or  injurious. 

At  first  sight  nothing  seems  clearer.  Why  should  we 
doubt  that  any  functional  or  organic  failure  is  a  handicap 
in  the  biological  race  ?  By  functional  trouble,  of  which 
the  cause  is  not  obvious,  we  mean  some  hindrance,  which 
may  be  recovered  from,  to  normal  or  physiological  action. 
It  is  due  to  factors  which,  for  the  most  part,  are  unknown. 
We  do  not  doubt  that  there  is  a  failure  somewhere,  which, 
as  regards  certain  cells,  might  be  called  organic,  but  often 
we  cannot  do  more  than  guess  where  the  actual  failure 
occurs.  In  that  advanced  disorder  of  function  which  has 
visible  lesions,  and  destruction  or  irremediable  alteration 
of  the  individual  parts  of  the  machine,  there  is  undoubted 
organic  disease.  Can  anything  seem  more  certain  than 
the  conclusion  that  any  organism  which  fails  in  the  estab- 
lished functions  of  its  species  is  as  a  fact  severely  handi- 
capped, that  the  variation  is  disadvantageous,  and  cannot 
possibly  be  transmitted  either  directly  or  by  survival? 
There  are,  however,  some  reasons  for  believing  that  this 
inference  is  inaccurate,  and  that  the  function  of  disease 


64     WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

in  evolution  is  of  much  greater  importance  than  that  of 
mere  elimination.  But  pathology  has  very  naturally 
been  neglected  as  a  study  by  biologists.  On  the  views 
generally  held,  it  has  seemed  sufficient  to  recognize  that 
disease  destroyed  organisms  which  obviously  left  offspring, 
if  it  left  them  at  all,  that  were  handicapped  even  more 
heavily  than  their  parents.  It  has  been  understood  that 
their  elimination  was  only  a  matter  of  time,  and  that  neither 
their  virtues  nor  their  failures  could  influence  the  race. 

If  there  is  one  thing  more  than  another  which  has 
struck  me  when  attempting  to  study  these  questions,  it 
is  that  too  many  men  of  science  appear  to  believe  that 
any  serious  investigation  of  other  branches  than  their 
own  is  for  them  a  waste  of  time.  In  no  case  is  this  more 
common  than  in  that  of  the  biologist,  who  yet,  by  the 
very  name  and  nature  of  his  task,  should  include  in  his 
apparatus  a  considerable  knowledge  of  everything  which 
deals  with  the  organic,  and  even  inorganic,  world.  Science, 
however,  is  kept  in  more  or  less  water-tight  compartments, 
and  it  seems  left  to  the  mathematician  to  hold  the  opinion 
that  his  own  branch  of  learning  has,  somehow  or  another, 
deep  relations  with  all  things,  including  life  itself.  Even 
by  him  it  does  not  seem  to  have  been  pointed  out  that 
in  things  living  and  non-living  certain  principles  of  con- 
struction rule  alike.  However  much  they  were  wedded 
to  mechanico-physical  explanations,  biologists  have 
assuredly  often  ignored  the  fact  that  any  organism  is 
construction,  and  knowing  little  of  the  laws  of  construc- 
tion have  ignored  basal  facts  familiar  to  every  architect 
or  even  every  artisan.  It  was  reserved  for  Wolff,  in 
formulating  his  law  of  bone-growth  and  reaction  to  stress, 
to  propound  a  principle  more  far-reaching  than  he  recog- 
nized, when  he  showed  that  living  bone,  reacting  to  normal 


REPAIR  IN  EVOLUTION  65 

or  abnormal  stimulation,  can  be  proved  to  develop  in 
accordance  with  the  principles  of  engineering  and  archi- 
tecture, although  he  apparently  laid  far  too  little  stress 
on  the  action  of  muscle  in  bone  transformation.  This 
law  may,  I  feel  assured,  be  extended  to  every  living  tissue, 
and  in  such  an  extension  will  be  found  the  key  to  many 
phenomena  still  awaiting  explanation. 

To  one  who  holds  this  view,  the  work  lately  done  by 
Starling  on  the  Law  of  the  Heart,  which  shows  that  the 
force  with  which  the  heart  contracts  is  directly  propor- 
tional to  the  length  of  the  muscular  fibres  at  the  end  of 
the  preceding  diastole,  is  by  no  means  surprising.  It 
is  indeed  on  a  par  with  the  conclusions  of  Wolff  as  regards 
bone,  and  might,  I  believe,  have  been  deduced  from  it  or 
from  the  form  I  suggest,  provided  it  is  understood  that  each 
varying  tissue  has  its  own  acquired  typical  reaction. 

If,  then,  it  can  be  shown  that  disease  has  had  a  pro- 
found effect  upon  the  evolution  of  all  organisms,  and 
that  analogous  results  are  found  in  every  kind  of  human 
constructive  effort  in  such  numbers  as  to  suggest  as  a  law 
that  all  great  variational  developments  result,  not  from 
the  happy-go-lucky  aggregation  of  small  advantageous 
variation,  or  from  discontinuous  variation,  whether  of  a 
Mendelian  character  or  not,  but  rather  from  partial  failure 
and  repair,  we  seem  to  be  in  sight  of  a  general  principle  of 
profound  importance.  If  this  principle  proves  sound,  it 
is  obvious  that  immense  labour  has  been  spent  by  biolo- 
gists endeavouring  to  explain  life  without  seeking  help 
from  other  workers.  Though  they  may  show  some  general 
knowledge  of  the  cell,  and  even  special  knowledge  of  the 
reproductive  cells,  I  find  few  who  appear  to  have  studied 
general  embryology,  to  speak  only  of  one  branch  of  physio- 
logy. On  the  other  hand,  many  physiologists  and 
5 


66  WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

pathologists  have  done  good  work  in  some  branches  of 
evolutionary  theory.  Bland-Sutton,  in  his  fruitful  little 
book  Evolution  and  Disease,  pointed  out  that, "  Pathology  is 
only  a  department  of  Biology,  and  it  is  important  to  bear 
this  in  mind  in  studying  disease."  It  is  true  that  he  went 
little  further  than  to  show  that  what  is  pathological  in  one 
organism  may  be  physiological  in  another,  and  that  many 
diseases  are  reversions,  that  is,  failure  in  normal  growth. 
Yet  this  greatly  needed  to  be  shown,  and  it  is  not  to  be 
expected  of  a  great  pathologist  and  surgeon,  and,  per- 
haps, the  less  the  greater  he  is  in  his  own  branches  of  work, 
that  he  should  attempt  tasks  from  which  many  of  the 
biologists  themselves  seemed  to  shrink.  Claude  Bernard 
made  similar  remarks  as  to  pathology.  It  is  to  be  re- 
gretted that  a  stumbling-block  was  placed  in  the  path 
of  progress  by  Darwin's  hopeless  dictum  as  to  the  explana- 
tion of  variation,  just  as  another  was  by  Huxley  when  he 
declared  consciousness  an  insoluble  problem.  In  every 
science  great  discoverers  have  too  often  delayed  progress 
as  much  by  authoritative  unsound  opinion  as  they  have 
advanced  it.  Every  Bible  is  first  a  book  of  revolution,  and 
then  a  refuge  for  reaction.  Yet  no  man  can  possibly  know 
all  he  should  know  for  the  purposes  of  his  own  work. 
This  fact  affords  the  only  justification  for  those,  who 
cannot  pretend  to  profound  knowledge  in  any  special  line, 
attempting  to  solve  problems  which  by  their  nature  are 
beyond  the  specialist.  They  may  have  been  able  to  grasp 
in  a  measure  the  general  conclusions  of  each  science,  and 
by  a  happy,  perhaps  accidental,  combination,  show  at  least 
part  of  the  forest  to  those  more  particularly  occupied  with 
the  trees  themselves,  or  the  flora  of  the  undergrowth. 

It  is  remarkable  that  hitherto  no  one  seems  to  have  made 
the  observation  that  reaction  to  an  actual,  or  threatened, 


REPAIR  IN  EVOLUTION  67 

breakdown  is  one  of  the  basal  laws  of  all  construction 
and  organization.     Yet  none  can  read  engineering  without 
observing  that  all  development  has  followed  such  lines. 
As  new  stresses  are  introduced,  failure  is  threatened,  and 
steps  are  taken  to  obviate  disaster.     What  is  a  patch  on  one 
engine  becomes  organic  in  the  next.     Since  waste  of  energy 
can  be  looked  on  as  pathological,  we  observe  the  reaction 
in  the  engineer  against  such  failures,  as  the  atmospheric 
engine  is  succeeded  by  improved  forms  ending  in  the  quad- 
ruple expansion  engine.      Many  other  instances  could  be 
adduced  in  general  or  special  engineering  evolution ;  but 
the  best  illustration  of  the  facts  which  need  elucidation 
can  perhaps  be  found  in  Gothic  architecture.      If  such  a 
demonstration   of   this  general  principle  can  be  made  it 
will  go  far  to  obviate  the  objection,  very  likely  to  be  urged, 
that  what  occurs  in  human  construction  has  no  relevance 
to  the  living  organism,  especially  if  it  can  be  suggested 
forcibly  that  human  intelligence  is  in  itself  a  reaction, 
and  that  the  law  obtains  in  developments  of  all  kinds. 
It  is,  indeed,  not  going  too  far  to  declare  that  there  is  no 
real  qualitative  difference  between  the  cytoplasm  of  a  test- 
bearing  protozoon  as  it  elaborates  its  peculiar  envelope 
and  the  general  cerebral  protoplasm   of  a  human   com- 
munity constructing  some  great  edifice.     That  trial  and 
error  are  at  the  base  of  evolution  is  indeed  implied  in 
the  current  teaching  as  to  variation,  and  its  extension  to 
intellectual  processes  will  surprise  no  worker  who  has  had 
to  deal  experimentally  with  the  unknown.     We  may  expect, 
but  never  know,  where  to  look  for  failure  till  we  see  it. 
When  it  is  seen  we  can  do  our  best,  as  reacting  agents,  to 
remedy  it.      Having  said    so  much,   and    leaving  aside 
the  wider  implications  of  such  views,  we  may  turn  to  such 
a  problem  of  construction  as  the  evolution  of  a  cathedral, 


68  WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

in  the  hope  that  it  may  throw  a  light  on  other  than  archi- 
tectural puzzles :  merely  observing,  on  the  way,  that 
no  general  principle  yet  discovered  is  confined  in  its  appli- 
cation to  one  branch  of  knowledge.  Having  once  found  it, 
our  task  is  to  employ  it  as  a  weapon  of  further  analysis. 

It  is  more  or  less  a  commonplace  that  function  creates 
structure,  however  Lamarckian  that  may  sound,  and  in 
the  case  of  architecture  of  a  religious  order  the  function 
which  constructs  is  public  worship.     In  fine  climates  the 
necessary  structure  is  often  a  roofless  temple.     In  tropical 
climates  a  flat  roof  may  be  needed  as  a  protection  against 
the  sun.     In  temperate  climates  a  walled  enclosure  is 
insufficient,  and  a  flat-roofed  structure  cannot  keep  out 
rain    effectually  or    bear   heavy  snow.     Thus  arose  the 
pointed  or  sloping  roof.     But  it  has  been  said  that  "  Gothic 
architecture  is  not  a  style.     It  is  a  fight."    The  arch  is  a 
mighty  warrior.    It  gives  and  receives  thrusts.   The  sloping 
roof  partakes  of  the  same  nature.     Need  created  it,  and  the 
nature  of  materials  and  the  positional  energy  we  call  gravity 
caused  thrusts  which  endangered  the  simple  walls  of  the 
building,  walls  at  first  meant  to  support  nothing  but  flat 
roofs  probably  covered  with  brush  or  the  like  material.    To 
build  stronger  walls  might  have  occurred  to  the  primitive 
architect,  but  as  the  danger  was  immediate,  he  probably 
at  once  shored  those  in  existence,  and  then  built  others 
at  a  right  angle  to  act  as  buttresses.     In  the  meantime 
the  worshippers  increased  in  numbers,  and  it  is  indulging  in 
no  flight  of  fancy  to  suppose  the  later  builder  saw  that  if 
the  new  external  walls  were  roofed  over,  and  doorways 
cut  into  the  main  building,  there  would  be  an  immediate 
increase  of  space  by  the  creation  of  chapels.     Such  a  series 
of  embryonic  additional  walled  spaces,  with  further  door- 
ways in  them  leading  to  each  other,  obviously  gave  him  the 


REPAIR  IN  EVOLUTION  69 

aisles.  The  flying  buttresses,  which  are  such  a  feature  in 
great  Gothic  architecture  had,  I  can  only  suppose,  a  like 
origin.  They  were  originally  buttress  walls  carried  up  to 
the  roof.  At  some  period  a  genius,  already  acquainted  with 
arcuated  structure,  saw  that  if  the  inside  of  these  walls 
was  cut  away,  they  would  still  take  a  heavy  thrust  and 
lighten  the  rest  of  the  building.  If,  however,  on  being 
converted  into  such  slender  stone  shores  they  showed  signs 
of  yielding,  what  could  be  easier  than  to  pile  some  of  the 
removed  material  upon  the  base  of  the  flying  arch,  and 
thus  create  the  beginning  of  the  pinnacle  ?  Though  an 
architect  might  develop  such  a  rough  statement,  he  would 
be  the  first  to  admit  that  it  represents  in  few  words  much 
of  the  evolution  of  a  church  :  that  is,  he  would  own  the 
structure  sprang  from  need,  and  that  each  new  need 
caused  a  constructional  failure  which,  when  strengthened 
and  corrected,  was  the  cause  of  further  structure.  He 
would  further  tell  us  that  all  good  ornament  is  organic  ; 
that  it  springs  naturally  from  the  work  already  done,  being 
in  its  origin  just  the  little  more  needed  to  give  a  margin 
of  safety,  though  on  it  later  are  exercised  the  aesthetic 
faculties  of  man,  which  are  again  a  response  to  the  need 
of  full  satisfaction  for  the  instinct  of  workmanship. 
Human  ornament  is  in  fact  strongly  homologous,  if  we  may 
use  that  word  here,  with  the  beauty  of  very  energetic 
birds,  who  carry  out  by  virtue  of  their  free  energy  the 
extension  of  structures  and  colours  already  existing  in  their 
less  brilliant  forms.  That,  however,  is  by  the  way.  The 
main  fact  we  are  concerned  with  is  that  the  building  as  a 
whole  is  evolved  through  trial  and  error,  through  failure 
and  repair,  through  a  threatened  structure  to  a  more  com- 
plete and  adequate  one  for  increased  function.  In  a  word, 
the  great  origin  of  structure  was  failure  after  failure  duly 


70     WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

compensated  for.  Is  there  any  reason  for  believing  that 
variation  in  the  structure  of  living  organisms  follows 
exactly  the  same  principle  ?  Are  we  entitled  to  say  that 
the  mammal,  for  instance,  with  all  its  complexity,  is  the 
result  of  infinite  ages  of  functional  failure  or  disease  which 
was  met  by  processes  of  repair  and  reaction  ?  In  a  word, 
can  we  speak  of  the  evolutionary  value  of  disease,  of  im- 
paired function,  of  disadvantageous  variations  ?  It  seems 
possible  to  do  so,  if  what  is  true  of  one  structure  is  roughly 
true  of  another. 

It  may  seem  absurd  to  talk  of  the  value  of  dis- 
advantageous variation;  but  it  is  no  more  absurd  than 
to  imply  that  all  variation  is  advantageous  because  it  is 
perpetuated.  What  is  useful  at  one  period  may  be  harmful 
at  another,  and  embryologists  thoroughly  understand  that 
developments  useful  in  foetal  or  larval  life  may  open  up 
many  dangers  for  the  adult.  The  real  point  to  be  con- 
sidered is  whether  organisms  as  a  species  do  not  vary  and 
run  great,  even  largely  destructive,  risks  by  an  increased 
pressure  of  function  which,  in  the  few  that  finally  react,  or 
whose  descendants  react,  to  such  stress,  results  at  last  in 
structure  that  is  advantageous  as  altered.  The  given 
variation  in  itself  may  be  a  failure  of  what  was  normal 
function  in  the  species,  and  we  should  therefore  as  patho- 
logists  or  physiologists  speak  of  it  as  a  disease  ;  but  if 
the  few  that  recover  become  a  new  species,  a  mended  race, 
it  is  no  longer  disease.  After  many  generations  it  may  be 
truly  advantageous  to  individuals.  Have  such  processes 
occurred  in  the  evolution  of  organisms,  as  they  undoubtedly 
have  in  the  arts  and  social  progress,  where  we  often  observe 
political  failure  of  organization  result  in  ad  hoc  reaction 
which  leads  to  a  changed  social  form  ?  I  have  no  doubt 
that  they  do,  and  many  organs  in  mammals,  to  speak  only 


REPAIR  IN  EVOLUTION  71 

of  them,  show  it.  It  is,  in  fact,  a  universal  principle.  As 
beavers  patch  up  a  dam  when  it  yields  or  threatens  to  give 
way,  so  tissues,  organs,  and  societies  react  to  threatened 
disaster.  In  no  tissue  is  this  clearer  than  in  bone.  It 
is  true  that  Wolff's  law  only  deals  directly  with  mechanical 
stresses,  since  it  runs :  "  Every  change  in  the  form  and 
position  of  the  bones  or  their  function  is  accompanied 
by  certain  definite  changes  in  their  internal  architecture, 
and  by  equally  definite  secondary  alterations  of  their 
external  conformation  in  accordance  with  mathematical 
law  "  ;  but  I  hope  to  show  reasons  for  concluding  that 
such  a  law  may  be  stated  in  more  general  terms,  and 
applied  to  every  tissue  and  organ,  provided  we  add,  as 
suggested  before,  that  the  more  complex  the  tissue  or  the 
organ  the  greater  the  liability  of  failure,  and  that  each 
tissue  reacts  in  a  typical  way. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  go  into  details  of  osteogenesis  and 
morphology.  It  has  been  recognized  by  engineers  that  the 
head  of  the  femur  is  formed  exactly  in  accordance  with 
mechanical  law.  Had  any  of  them  been  required  to  design 
a  structure  fit  for  undergoing  the  stresses  borne  by  the  femur 
in  its  development  and  af ter-life,  he  would  have  sketched  a 
figure  extremely  like  it,  not  only  in  its  general  shape,  but 
in  the  trabeculae  which  support  the  bone  in  every  direc- 
tion where  extra  stresses  are  applied  by  normal  function. 
The  important  point  to  note  is  the  fact  that  femoral 
development  follows  stress  in  individual  development, 
from  which  we  must  draw  the  conclusion  that  it  followed 
stress  during  evolution,  not  that  its  value  for  complex 
function  was  gradually  increased  by  chance  or  "  spon- 
taneous "  variation,  unless  we  attribute  to  "  spontaneous  " 
a  meaning  which  Darwin  never  gave  it,  seeing  that  he 
denied  knowing  how  variation  arose.  All  the  variations 


72  WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

were  definite  responses,  and  it  is  easy  to  infer  that  before 
response  became  rapid  and  easy  every  kind  of  disaster  and 
disablement  must  have  occurred  to  those  subjected  to 
reaction-provoking  stresses.  The  very  process  of  adapta- 
tion (and  on  these  lines  "adaptation"  is  no  longer  a 
mystic  word)  implies  long  periods  of  disordered  function 
and  poor  structural  response  even  in  those  who  survived 
after  repair.  But  now  bone  is  so  plastic  and  fluent  that 
when  it  is  grafted  the  osteoblasts  and  osteoclasts  use  and 
shape  it  according  to  the  form  of  the  main  bone  of  which 
it  becomes  a  part.  For,  according  to  Keith,  Wolff's  law 
may  be  more  simply  expressed  if  we  say  :  "  Osteoblasts  at 
all  times  build  and  unbuild  according  to  the  stresses  to 
which  they  are  subjected." 

When  we  speak  of  repair  it  may  be  noted  that  the 
treatises  on  this  subject  are  strictly  limited  in  their 
purview.  They  mostly  follow  Hunter,  a  vitally  important 
figure  in  the  history  of  pathology,  and  indeed  of  all  medical 
science,  who,  however,  lacked  the  apparatus  of  knowledge 
now  at  every  one's  disposal.  We  learn  a  great  deal  about 
the  repair  of  wounds  and  fractures  :  of  the  functions  of 
the  fibroblasts  or  of  the  wandering  cells  of  the  blood- 
stream, and  are  told,  lately,  much  of  regeneration ;  but  of 
the  evolutionary  value  of  organized  exudations  we  hear 
little  or  nothing.  Nor  has  it  been  suggested  that  it  is  to 
this  and  analogous  processes  that  much  new  structure  is  due. 
That  this  is  so  is  strikingly  apparent,  as  I  shall  attempt 
to  show,  in  many  organs  of  a  highly  specialized  type.  In 
no  structure,  perhaps,  is  the  process  so  clearly  seen  as 
in  the  mammalian  heart,  which  is  a  perfect  museum  of 
evolutionary  failures  and  dislocations,  compensated  for  by 
an  extraordinary  complication  of  patched-up  tissues  and 
altered  muscle  in  which,  perhaps,  one  tissue  takes  on 


REPAIR  IN  EVOLUTION  73 

the  functions  of  another,  and  some  evolutionary  rem- 
nants long  survive  without  function.  I  was,  indeed,  first 
led  to  take  this  general  view  of  the  variational  value  of 
pathological  conditions  by  observing  that  the  heart,  when 
laid  open  from  any  aspect,  powerfully  suggested  an 
organized  or  cured  aneurism.  By  this  I  do  not  mean 
that  it  is  now  in  any  way  aneurismal,  or  that  the  heart  is 
descended  from  such  a  large  and  definite  breakdown.  The 
view  put  forward  is  that  the  complex  machinery  of  the 
chorda  tendinece,  the  columnce  carnece,  the  papillares 
musculi,  the  moderator  band  and  the  valves  generally, 
gives  it  the  appearance  of  a  repaired  organ,  and  inevitably 
suggests  that,  during  its  evolution,  fibrosis  and  the  reactions 
of  stressed  tissues  moulded  and  re-moulded  it  on  the 
general  lines  of  mechanical  construction,  breakdown,  and 
repair.  Many  must  have  made  the  same  observations, 
even  if  they  have  not  come  to  similar  conclusions.  The 
anatomist  and  pathologist  perhaps  know  their  subjects 
too  well,  and  are  necessarily  greatly  dominated  by  current 
theory.  The  general  adaptation  of  the  heart  to  the  work 
it  performs  may  well  delight  the  anatomist  as  he  studies 
its  machinery.  His  main  business  is  not  evolution.  The 
pathologist,  on  the  other  hand,  observing  its  many  failures, 
is  scarcely  likely  to  discern  that  by  failure  itself  may  come 
eventual  perfection,  and  while  the  physiologist  considers 
its  functions  rather  than  its  apparatus,  he  studies  it  as  it 
is,  not  as  it  was.  In  each  case  the  observer  may  not  see  the 
forest  for  the  trees.  Yet  when  we  look  at  the  partially 
repaired  aneurism  with  its  fibrous  growths,  and  turn  to  the 
opened  heart,  the  essential  likeness  of  the  chorda  tendinece, 
for  all  their  definite  functions,  to  the  rude  fibres  of  an 
aneurism,  is  obvious.  Is  such  a  likeness  an  accident  of 
evolution  and  pathology,  or  are  we  to  consider  the  heart 


74  WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

as  much  an  organized  dilatation  sac  of  the  whole  fused 
circulatory  canal  as  the  cured  aneurism  is  of  a  part  of  it  ? 
It  is  in  embryology  that  we  seek  for  confirmation  of  what 
is  suggested  by  anatomy.  But  even  anatomy  alone  offers 
powerful  proof  of  the  view  that  the  heart,  as  we  know  it, 
is  the  latest  result  of  repeated  failures  of  the  circulatory 
canal  under  strain,  and  of  the  repairs  effected  by  the  stressed 
tissues  in  their  response  to  changed  and  abnormal  stimuli, 
just  as  bone  alters  under  its  particular  stresses.  During 
embryological  life  there  is  found  in  the  heart  a  small  patch 
of  non-functioning  muscle  in  the  anterior  segment  of  the 
mitral  valve.  Its  presence  is  intelligible  if  we  consider 
it  a  relic  of  a  disrupted  and  repaired  organ.  The  muscles 
of  the  heart  are  obviously  homologous  with  those  of  the 
arteries.  Yet  they  have  become  striated  although  they  are, 
of  course,  still  involuntary.  Non-striated  muscle  is  the 
earliest  in  evolution.  It  seems  that  the  increased  func- 
tioning of  the  cardiac  muscle  has  converted  it  into  its 
striated  form,  so  that  it  resembles  skeletal  muscles,  which 
are  much  more  active  than  non-striated  muscle.  The 
whole  histology  of  cardiac  muscle  probably  represents  the 
result  of  great  strains.  Structures  such  as  the  disks  or 
bands  of  Ebarth  are  found  nowhere  else,  and  may  be  the 
result  of  peculiar  stress.  There  are  even  portions  of  muscle 
which  no  longer  perform  muscular  functions.  Their 
fibres  do  not  contract,  but  serve  instead  to  conduct 
stimuli  as  if  they  were  nervous  tissue.  All  tissue  is  con- 
ductive, but  the  Bundle  of  His,  with  its  Purkinje  fibres, 
which  carries  the  impulse  from  the  auricle  to  the  ventricle, 
transmits  messages  at  ten  or  twelve  times  the  normal 
muscular  rate.  When  it  fails  there  is  heart-block.  In 
the  embryo  the  valves  arise  from  the  cardiac  walls,  and  are 
composed  of  muscular  tissue,  which  by  the  action  of  fibro. 


REPAIR  IN  EVOLUTION  75 

blasts  gradually  become  non-muscular.  This  must  have 
been  originally  a  pathological  process.  It  is  a  reversion, 
a  degeneration  made  use  of.  We  observe  analogous,  or 
shall  I  say  homologous  ?  results  in  the  hypertrophied  heart. 
The  normal  male  heart  weighs  about  eleven  ounces.  In 
some  cases  of  aortic  stenosis  it  may  weigh  over  thirty  ounces. 
In  such  hypertrophied  muscle  are  often  found  fibrous 
tissues  which  probably  represent  the  connective  tissue  of 
muscular  fibres  which  have  atrophied  from  overstrain.  The 
attachments  of  the  mitral  valve  are  less  muscular  and  more 
fibrous  than  those  of  the  tricuspid.  The  greater  elasticity 
of  the  tricuspid  papillares  musculi  and  the  annular  muscles 
of  the  base  of  the  ventricle  thus  allows  an  overfull  right 
ventricle,  which  is  so  much  less  powerful  than  the  left, 
to  be  relieved  by  the  temporary  functional  incompetence 
of  the  tricuspid  valve.  In  the  reptile  with  a  functioning 
foramen  the  valves  are  purely  mechanical,  as  pressure  is 
relieved  by  the  patent  orifice.  The  fossa  ovalis  in  the 
mammal  is  a  remnant  of  the  early  communication  between 
the  auricles.  In  a  large  number  of  normal  hearts  there  is 
a  small  valvular  passage  yet  remaining  in  the  left  margin 
of  the  fossa.  None  of  these  phenomena  seem  capable  of 
explanation  as  the  result  of  spontaneous  variations 
arising  from  some  theoretic  instability  of  the  organism. 
To  argue  that  they  are  is  to  give  biologic  mystics  a  chance. 
It  appears  obvious  from  all  these  facts  taken  together 
that  cardiac  evolution  has  been  a  series  of  caused  varia- 
tions due  to  increased  and  varying  stresses,  which  acted 
not  only  as  a  moulding  force  on  the  shape  and  musculature 
of  the  heart,  but  on  all  its  appendages.  In  the  muscle  of 
the  ventricular  walls  with  its  extraordinary  complexity  of 
layers  and  interlaced  fibres  lies  powerful  evidence  of  such 
reactions.  In  both  ventricles  there  are  seven  muscular 


76  WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

layers,  while  in  the  arteries  there  seems  but  one.  In  the 
left  ventricle  these  layers  are  obviously  thicker  and  stronger 
than  in  the  less  stressed  right  cavity.  But  how  did  the 
ventricular  cavities  acquire  more  layers  than  the  arteries  ? 
No  new  muscle  fibres  arise  after  birth,  and  yet  there  is 
obvious  reason  for  believing  that  stress  can  be  responded 
to  by  increase  of  muscle  fibre  during  evolution.  In  the 
gravid  uterus  the  smooth  fibres  of  the  wall  increase 
to  eleven  times  their  normal  length,  and  are  from  two  to 
five  times  as  broad.  So  far  as  we  know  there  cannot  be 
new  fibres  in  it.  But  in  evolution  new  fibres  are  un- 
doubtedly found.  In  the  arteries,  the  fibres  of  non-striated 
muscle  in  the  tunica  media  are  for  the  most  part  circular, 
but  they  appear  to  have  more  or  less  longitudinal  branches 
which  interlock  with  like  branches  of  the  neighbouring 
fibres.  One  of  the  most  prominent  features  of  an  in- 
dividual aneurism  is  the  thinning  out,  and  sometimes  the 
disappearance,  of  the  tunica  media.  The  muscle  fibres  in 
such  cases  are  completely  broken  down,  and  if  the  aneurism 
is  repaired  in  individuals  the  work  is  done  mostly  by  an 
increase  of  the  connective-tissue  elements.  The  process 
is  said  by  some  to  be  a  reparatory  endarteritis,  in  which 
the  tissues  of  the  adventitia  proliferate  actively.  But  the 
evolutionary  process  has  obviously  taken  the  path  of 
increase  and  reactive  proliferation  of  the  muscular  elements 
of  the  media. 

Without  attempting  a  task  of  which  I  am  incapable  and 
endeavouring  to  elucidate  the  problem  of  the  origin  of 
circulatory  systems  in  a  primary  vascular  sponge-work, 
through  which  the  fluids  of  the  primitive  organism  were 
propelled  by  contractile  tissue,  it  may  be  noted  that  the 
columns  and  chordce  rise  from  such  a  sponge-work  which, 
at  an  early  embryonic  period,  fills  the  primitive  ventricle. 


REPAIR  IN  EVOLUTION  77 

To  interpret  such  an  origin  and  their  present  functions  it 
seems  they  must  be  looked  on  as  reaction  products  found 
useful  when  the  chambers  of  the  heart  arose  as  dilatations 
of  the  primitive  tube.     Such  dilatations  were  probably, 
I  would  even  say  certainly,  failures  of  the  walls.    The 
incomplete  pathological  disaster  of  a  repaired  aneurism 
helps  us  to  understand  such  evolutionary  failure  and  repair 
as  enabled  the  evolving  heart  to  endure  greater  stresses, 
and  be  once  more  repaired.     It  may  be  added  that  the 
sponge-work  of  the  evolving  primary  ventricle  is  strictly 
analogous  to  the  vascular  spongy  tissues  seen  in  the  male 
organ.     Every  pathologist  will  admit  that  such  a  structure 
may  be    logically  compared  with  a  vascular    aneurism. 
The  path  laid  down  by  pathology  is  trodden  by  physiology. 
It  follows  that  during  evolution  there  must  have  been  an 
immense  destruction  of  organisms  whose  circulating  canals 
did  not  react,  and  numbers  which  retained  their  unaltered 
"  specific  "  characters.     The  same  process  goes  on  to-day. 
Though  many  die  of  cardiac  disease,  it  may  be  that  much 
youthful  functional  trouble,  and  even  more  serious  adult 
disorders,  are  even  now  re-moulding  the  heart.     No  organ 
is  perfect ;  if  it  does  not  degenerate  it  progresses.     Though 
such  processes  are  "  disease,"  it  by  no  means  follows  that 
they  will  be  destructive,  any  more  than  that  the  functional 
incapacity  of    the    tricuspid   valves   in    athletes,   which 
probably  precedes  what  is  known  as  "  second  wind,"  is 
anything  now  but  a  cardiac  safety-valve. 

As  we  learn  more  of  the  heart  and  its  latent  capacities 
we  may,  perhaps,  say  with  the  late  Dr.  H.  G.  Button,  "  we 
trust  nature  too  little,  to  say  the  least  of  it."  But  there  are, 
of  course,  great  difficulties  to  overcome  before  we  can  hope 
to  understand  how  the  cardiac  musculature  has  altered, 
and  may  still  be  changing  by  the  addition  of  new  fibres. 


78  WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

As  yet,  little  is  known  of  myogenesis.  Like  a  neuron,  a 
muscle  cell  seems  to  last  a  lifetime,  and  though  both  may 
degenererate  or  die,  neither  proliferates  after  the  early 
period  of  development.  But  whatever  their  histogenesis, 
new  fibres  do  appear  in  evolution.  Harvey  did  not  refuse 
to  believe  in  the  validity  of  his  own  conclusions,  because 
he  lived  before  Leeuwenhoek.  With  considerable  hesita- 
tion I  venture  to  suggest  that  morphogenetic  stress  is  at 
its  height  during  foetal  development.  The  child  in  utero 
has  not,  perhaps,  the  calm  and  happy  life  commonly 
attributed  to  it.  On  the  contrary,  it  probably  leads  a 
strenuous  existence,  and  if  it  inherits  a  new  weakness  this 
is  shown  just  where  and  when  new  stresses  find  plastic 
embryonic  tissues  to  respond  to  them.  If  such  a  specu- 
lation is  sound  it  accounts  for  many  phenomena.  But  in 
any  case,  whatever  the  machinery  of  inheritance  and 
evolutionary  repair,  it  is  certain  that  new  fibres  arise  where 
they  are  needed.1  The  origin  of  the  cremaster  muscle  as  a 
lately  evolved  support  for  the  testis  certainly  strengthens 
this  view.  Hunter  could  not  account  for  its  appearance 
during  embryonic  life,  when  the  testis  occupies  its  original 
position,  and  the  cremaster  serves  no  purpose.  In  the 
testiconda  such  a  muscle  is  not  found.  It  must  obviously 
have  arisen  as  the  result  of  stress  during  the  evolutionary 
descent  of  the  testis,  and  cannot  be  accounted  for  except 
by  such  stresses  and  foetal  hormonic  influences. 

If  such  views  in  any  way  represent  the  biological 
history  of  the  heart,  it  is  obvious  that  many  of  the  opinions 
of  variation  usually  held  are  without  foundation.  Every 
variation  is  definitely  caused  ;  it  is  in  no  sense  accidental 
or  spontaneous  ;  it  may  not  even  be  at  once  advantageous 
to  the  individual ;  on  the  contrary,  it  may  be  a  severe 

1  See  Appendix  B.    The  Peroneus  Tertius. 


REPAIR  IN  EVOLUTION  79 

handicap  which  puts  greater  general  stress  on  all  who 
experience  it,  though  such  stresses  fall  short  of  those  which 
cause  death.  Variations  of  this  order  may  only  be  advan- 
tageous to  the  whole  species  as  a  continuing  race.  They 
may  destroy,  and  doubtless  have  destroyed,  individuals 
without  number  at  an  earlier  age  than  the  usual  life-period 
of  the  unvaried  type.  We  may  possibly  imagine  a  part  of 
humanity,  now  responding  to  stresses  which  make  the 
heart  do  more  work  and  fail  earlier,  displaying  such  energy 
during  their  shorter  life  as  to  displace  those  with  a  normal 
cardiac  mechanism  which  survives  to  the  average  age  of 
man.  It  is  to  be  inferred  from  these  considerations  that 
the  structure  of  an  organism  is  not  a  congeries  of  minute 
fortuitous  advantageous  variations,  nor  the  gradual 
massing  of  details  in  an  orthogenetic  line,  nor  the  result  of 
large  discontinuous  variations  due  to  chromosomatic 
inheritance,  but  a  complex  of  definite  reactions  to  definite 
stresses.  The  true  theory  of  living  structure  is  that  its 
growth  is  neither  casual  nor  foreseen,  but  that  it  is  what  we 
may  call,  in  political  language,  the  "  opportunism  "  of  the 
organism  as  a  whole.  Every  advance  is  a  forced,  even  a 
desperate,  experiment.  Life,  like  a  hypothesis  or  a  dam, 
is  built  up  by  stopping  leaks. 

The  evolution  of  the  stomach  seems  to  have  followed 
the  lines  suggested  for  cardiac  development.  From  the 
physiological  point  of  view,  an  intestinal  tube  which  be- 
comes dilated  cannot  be  considered  anything  but  patho- 
logical. It  has  failed  under  the  stresses  on  it,  but  the 
organism  which  reacted  turned  a  weak  dilatation  sac  into 
a  strong  permanent  food  pouch.  The  results  to  the  reacting 
organisms  were  many.  The  ingested  food  became  tem- 
porarily static,  was  more  thoroughly  dealt  with,  and  the 
organism  was  not  continually  feeding.  Its  whole  available 


80  WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

energy  was  not  devoted  to  nutrition ;  it  had  time  at  its 
disposal,  and  could  develop  other  functions  leading  to 
further  structures.  That  the  mammalian  stomach  is 
such  an  organized  failure  is  suggested  forcibly  by  the 
musculature.  In  the  small  intestine  this  is  composed  of 
two  layers  of  fibres,  circular  and  longitudinal.  In  the 
stomach  it  is  made  of  three  sets,  an  inmost  layer  of  oblique 
fibres  being  added.  This  oblique  layer  is  obviously  a 
later  growth  and,  as  would  be  expected  on  the  lines  laid 
down  as  to  disaster  and  repair,  its  strongest  fibres  are 
found  supporting  the  greater  curvature  or  dilatation  of 
the  stomach.  When  speaking  of  these  muscle  fibres,  it 
is,  of  course,  understood  that  they  not  only  resisted  the 
passive  strains  of  ingested  food,  but  also  exercised  their 
active  basal  function  of  contractility  as  well.  This  later 
oblique  layer  is  naturally  less  well  developed  than  the 
longitudinal  and  circular  fibres.  Other  oblique  fibres  are 
formed  about  the  pylorus,  where  they  form  the  sphincter. 
I  suggest  that  these  oblique  muscle  fibres  arose  at  points  of 
strain,  under  intense  stimulation.  The  dilated  pouch  has 
reacted  in  accordance  with  mechanical  law,  just  as  the 
heart  did  with  its  more  complex  arrangement  of  oblique 
fibres  woven  into  a  structure  capable  of  giving  in  the  left 
ventricle  a  thrust  of  over  fifty  pounds.  The  reacting 
organism  is  no  fool  of  a  mechanic  either  in  its  bones  or  its 
muscles,  and  these  phenomena  are  additional  reasons  for 
extending  Wolff's  law  to  all  tissues  if  it  is  understood  that, 
while  bone  responds  to  gravitational  and  compressional 
stresses,  and  to  the  tensile  stress  of  muscle,  the  fibres  of 
muscle  produce  the  very  stresses  to  which  they  respond 
by  increase  of  bulk  and  strength.  If  protoplasm  did  not 
so  react  there  would  be  no  problems  to  solve. 

Such  views  on  the  mammalian  gastric  apparatus  are  so 


REPAIR  IN  EVOLUTION  81 

obviously  supported  by  the  embryology  of  the  organ  that 
there  is  no  need  to  go  into  details  beyond  noticing  that 
in  the  fourth  week  there  comes  the  first  dorsal  bulging  in 
the  foregut.  But  if  evolution  is  still  proceeding,  is  it 
absurd  to  suggest  that  the  common  symptom  of  a  general 
disturbance  of  health  known  as  dilated  stomach  may  be  a 
pathological  process  actually  in  the  process  of  becoming 
physiological  ?  According  to  some  physicians,  few  modern 
stomachs  do  not  suffer  at  times  from  an  amount  of 
dilatation  which  is  pathological ;  i.e.  the  gastric  mus- 
culature fails  to  react  correctly.  The  stomach  may  yet 
be  such  a  functioning  dilatation  pouch  as  to  enable  the 
human  race  to  do  with  no  more  than  one  meal  a  day,  or 
even  less.  Our  descendants  will  have  all  the  more  time 
for  work.  This  by  no  means  implies  that  the  empty 
stomach  should  be  any  larger  than  it  is  now  in  healthy 
subjects.  Before  the  invention  of  X-rays  the  gastric 
apparatus  was  always  pictured  in  text-books  as  usually 
seen  on  the  post-mortem  table.  The  dead  stomach  was 
shown  as  the  portrait  of  the  live  one  :  the  weakened  pouch 
of  the  sick  man  as  that  of  the  live  and  healthy  subject. 
But  nowadays  it  is  known  that  such  extreme  dilatation  is 
natural  only  when  a  large  meal  has  been  taken.  When  the 
healthy  stomach  has  emptied  itself  it  has  contracted  so 
that  it  nearly  resumes  its  ancient  cylindrical  character 
and  then  goes  into  a  state  of  rest  or  relaxation.  With 
further  development  it  might  hold  still  more,  and  yet  react 
in  the  same  way.  The  suggestion  that  functional  failure 
or  disease,  which  becomes  organic  and  destructive  in  many, 
may,  in  reacting  and  surviving  organisms,  alter  their  outlook 
on  life  and  all  their  activities,  seems  to  me  powerfully 
reinforced  by  these  considerations.  The  disadvantageous 
variation  does  work,  and  finally  improves  the  race.  It 


82     WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

is  a  big  subject,  not  to  be  enlarged  on  here ;  but  there  still 
remains  much  work  to  be  done  as  to  the  indirect  influences 
of  diseases,  infections,  and  otherwise,  upon  physical  and 
cerebral  development.  It  may  be  suggested  that  the 
acuity  of  sensation  and  perception  of  those  affected,  but 
not  disabled,  by  tuberculosis  and  the  slow  acquisition  of 
immunity,  may  have  modified  human  character  to  a 
marked  degree. 

It  can  even  be  shown  that  disadvantageous  variations 
actually  become  permanent  racial  characters.  We  may 
consider  hernias.  During  the  processes  of  evolution,  a 
mammalian  hernia  seems  to  have  occurred  almost  univer- 
sally, and  to  have  established  itself  as  normally  physio- 
logical. The  tunica  vaginalis  of  the  testis  is  actually  part 
of  the  original  peritoneal  sac,  as  can  be  seen  in  the  embryo. 
This  was,  of  course,  observed  by  John  Hunter.  During 
foetal  life  it  is  separated  from  the  parent  sac.  In  whatever 
sense  we  now  call  such  a  change  physiological,  it  seems 
impossible  to  regard  it  as  originally  anything  but  patho- 
logical. I  certainly  do  not  know  how  we  can  describe  the 
scrotum  as  anything  else  than  the  coverings  of  an  evolu- 
tionary hernial  sac,  which  is  not  only  of  no  advantage,  but 
a  positive  danger  to  most  male  animals.  This  view  has  been 
supported  by  Bramann.  In  some,  the  pigs  for  instance, 
the  testicles  do  not  descend  into  an  external  pouch,  but 
are  supported  and  protected  by  the  normal  skin  tissues, 
not  by  a  thinned  and  delicate  integument  of  later  develop- 
ment like  the  scrotum,  a  tissue  still  scantily  supplied 
with  the  non-striated  muscular  fibres  which  might  have 
reinforced  it,  and  are,  perhaps,  now  developing  slowly. 
When  we  consider  the  rarity  of  muscular  fibres  in  human 
skin  tissues  in  comparison  with  those  of  animals,  their 
greater  frequency  in  the  scrotum  and  perinaeum  suggests 


REPAIR  IN  EVOLUTION  83 

that  they  are  a  reaction  product,  a  forced  revival  of  the 
primitive  panniculus.  They  act  in  the  dartos,  or  deeper 
layers  of  the  scrotal  dermis,  at  right  angles  to  the  rugse, 
and  are  something  of  a  support.  The  pink  colour  of  this 
structure  is  due  to  the  presence  of  these  muscular  fibres. 
They  are  not  connected  in  any  way.  with  the  cremaster 
muscle,  and  therefore  are  not  affected  by  the  cremasteric 
reflex.  In  many  senses  the  descent  of  the  testes  cannot 
be  called  advantageous.  It  causes  a  weak  spot,  recognized 
as  such  by  men  and  animals.  The  Japanese  wrestlers 
are  said  to  be  trained  from  earliest  youth  to  return 
the  testes  into  the  inguinal  canals.  If  the  translation 
of  the  testis  from  a  safe  place  to  an  exposed  one  has  had 
any  good  results,  they  have  been  indirect  and  only 
discoverable,  though  not  yet  discovered,  over  long  periods 
during  which  the  change  must  have  been  disastrous  to 
many.  To  argue  that  they  were  advantageous  to  begin 
with  is  to  destroy  the  authority  of  reason.  It  is  true 
that  at  the  present  stage  of  human  development  an  un- 
descended  testis  rarely  produces  normal  spermatozoa.  But 
to  argue  that  the  testes  descended  because  the  rise  of 
intra-abdominal  pressure  produced  conditions  incompatible 
with  racial  continuance  seems  to  ignore  physical  causation 
in  favour  of  a  partially  teleological  explanation.  It  cannot 
be  argued  that  their  present  situation  was  always  the  best, 
or  that  their  early  position  was  disadvantageous  in  face 
of  the  fact  that  in  elephants,  seals,  and  walruses  the  testes 
remain  undescended,  and  that  the  boar's  are  at  least  in- 
conspicuous and  protected  by  normal  skin  tissues.  As  a 
rough  partial  illustration,  it  may  be  said  that  though  an 
emigrant's  descendants  might  do  badly  in  his  native  village, 
it  does  not  follow  that  they  might  not  have  functioned 
there  successfully  if  their  parent  had  not  left  it. 


84  WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

It  may  seem  an  undue  extension  of  the  view  that 
pathology  has  played  an  immense  part  in  evolution,  if  it  is 
suggested  that  it  was  upon  pathological  conditions  that  the 
very  existence  of  the  Metazoa  depended.  There  can  be 
no  doubt  that  they  originated  from  some  protozoon  by  a 
failure  of  normal  physiological  fission.  We  see  here  how 
theories  of  disease  may  be  modified  according  to  the  point 
of  view  taken.  From  that,  shall  I  say,  of  a  protozoan 
Hippocrates  or  Hunter  nothing  can  be  more  obvious  than 
that  a  failure  of  mitosis  would  be  a  calamity,  the  birth  of 
a  monster,  of  Siamese  twins,  among  the  normally  con- 
stituted unicellular  organisms.  It  is  still  in  the  processes 
of  reproduction  that  we  find  the  strongest  evidence  of  the 
part  played  by  disease. 

When  considering  such  problems  in  this  light,  it  seems 
somewhat  difficult  to  account  for  the  satisfaction  of 
many  with  the  theory  of  small  cumulative  advantageous 
variations.  What  ground  is  there  for  imagining  such 
machinery  could  result  in  a  complex  series  of  adaptations 
such  as  the  uterus,  and  what  we  may  call  its  habits  and 
customs  in  dealing  with  the  embryo  from  the  entrance  of 
the  ovum  till  birth  ?  Even  those  who  adapt  to  their 
own  ideas  some  theory  of  large  discontinuous  variation 
will,  in  the  end,  be  compelled  to  attribute  the  uterine  growth 
and  functions  to  a  mystic  power  or  virtue  in  the  original 
germ.  They  may  follow  some  philosophers,  and  "  unpack  " 
powers  out  of  a  conjurer's  bag  without  telling  us  how 
they  got  there.  Yet  if  we  regard  the  uterus  as  the  result 
of  tissue  reactions  under  abnormal  stimuli,  being  guided 
in  research  by  the  processes  seen  every  day  in  disease,  the 
variations,  whether  small  or  large,  continuous  or  discon- 
tinuous, assume  an  aspect  neither  fanciful  nor  mystical, 
and  our  need  for  biological  faith  is  reduced  to  a  decent 


REPAIR  IN  EVOLUTION  85 

scientific  minimum.  To  say  so  much  is  not  to  deny  that 
small  variations  may  finish,  or  polish,  a  rough  incomplete 
adaptation.  From  an  eolith  to  the  perfection  of  Chellean 
art  may  be  such  a  process,  but  the  first  eolith  was  no  small 
variation. 

The  fact  that  the  embryo  acts  upon  the  maternal 
organism  as  a  parasite  against  which  the  mother  has  to 
be  protected,  is  commonly  recognized,  but  I  have  not  seen 
the  obvious  conclusion  drawn  that  the  whole  history  of 
the  mammal  must  have  been  due  originally  to  a  pathological 
accident  in  some  one  or  more  of  their  ancestors.  The 
mammalian  animal  still  lays  eggs,  but  they  are  not  ex- 
truded. When  such  retention  first  took  place,  it  must 
have  been  due  to  an  accidental  pathological  delay  of  the 
travelling  ovum,  owing  perhaps  to  catarrh  of  the  tube. 
Even  now  the  mother  has  to  be  rendered  immune  to  the 
products  of  the  offspring.  Many  of  the  phenomena  of  early 
gestation  are  those  of  immunization,  in  some  cases  a  very 
slow  process,  as  is  shown  in  human  beings  by  vomiting  and 
malaise.  It  has,  moreover,  not  been  clearly  or  generally 
recognized,  except  by  pathologists,  that  the  very  methods 
by  which  the  ovum  attaches  itself  to  the  uterine  wall  are,  so 
far  as  the  hostess  is  concerned,  actually  pathological  and 
bordering  on  the  malignant.  Yet  they  have  resulted  in  a 
series  of  protective  reactions  which  save  the  parent  and 
permit  the  growth  of  the  parasite.  The  method  by  which 
the  ovum  becomes  partially  buried  in  the  tissues  is  obviously 
of  a  destructive  kind,  and  curiously  analogous  to  the 
malignant  processes  seen  in  chorion-epithelioma.  Bland- 
Sutton  remarks,  "This  disease  is  instructive  because  the 
erosive  action  of  the  trophoblast  is  the  physiological  type 
of  the  invasiveness  so  characteristic  of  many  varieties  of 
cancer."  It  must,  I  think,  be  added,  that  it  is  the  balance 


86  WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

established  by  reaction  which  makes   the  trophoblastic 
action  physiological.1 

That  the  influence  of  the  ovum  on  the  undeveloped  tube 
must  have  been  of  an  exceedingly  dangerous  character  is 
now  seen  in  tubal  pregnancies  during  which  the  chorionic 
villi  frequently  penetrate  the  wall  of  the  tube,  which  does 
not  react  as  powerfully  as  the  uterus.     Such  a  process  in 
the  uterus,  which  is  itself  a  tubal  dilatation,  is  now  normal, 
because  these  villi,  the  earlier  nutrition  roots  or  organs  of 
the  parasite,  are  prevented  from  injuring  the  uterine  wall 
irrevocably  by  the  transformation  of  the  reactive  uterine 
decidua  and  the  chorionic  villi  and  the  allantois  of  the 
foetus  into  the  combined  temporary  organ  known  as  the 
placenta.     It  may  be  noted  that  the  non-placental  mammals 
are  less  exposed  to  the  destructive  and  toxic  effects  of  their 
offspring,  as  they  are  born  at  an  earlier  stage  than  in  the  case 
of  the  deciduate  mammals.     The  marsupial  foetus  is  about 
half  an  inch  in  length  when  transferred  to  the  milk-pouch. 
It  is  impossible  to  look  at  the  placenta  without  recognizing 
that  it  is  what  we  may  call  a  compromise  growth,  one  which 
serves  the  embryo  without  destroying  the  parent  hostess. 
That  all  mammals  are  not  yet  fully  armed  against  any 
morbid  alteration  of  function  in  the  penetrating  chorionic 
villi  is  seen,  as  suggested  above,  in  chorion-epithelioma, 
where   the   energy  of   the   villi   trophoblasts  leads  to  a 
malignant  overgrowth  of  the  epithelial  elements,  which  the 
maternal  tissues  fail  to  inhibit.     The  hydatid  mole,  which 
does  not  as  a  rule  become  malignant,  is  a  case  where 
such  inhibition  has  been  sufficient.      These   phenomena 
establish  on  a  firm  foundation  the  view  that  the  uterus  and 
its  reactions  during  gestation  are  definite  protective  pro- 
cesses  or  variations  springing  originally  from   a  purely 

1  See  Chapter  II.,  Malignancy. 


REPAIR  IN  EVOLUTION  87 

pathological  accident  in  some  ancestors  of  the  mammalians. 
However  complex  the  embryology  of  the  uterus  and  its 
appendages,  the  broad  facts  are  compatible  with  this 
view,  which  is  strengthened  by  the  later  parasitic  history 
of  the  offspring  after  birth.  The  mammae  appear  to  be  a 
compromise  between  the  needs  of  the  infant  and  the  pro- 
tection of  the  mother ;  it  has  been  suggested  that  they 
originated  in  sore  or  tender  spots  on  the  epithelium  most 
exposed  to  the  assaults  of  the  parasite.  Whether  this  is 
true  or  not,  the  growth  of  the  nipple  is  a  complex  variation 
depending  on  the  mechanical  action  of  sucking  with  a 
reaction  proliferation  of  the  epithelial  elements  of  the 
sweat  and  sebaceous  glands,  and  an  increased  blood-supply 
as  special  maternal  protection  against  oral  infection.  It 
seems  to  me  that  few  stronger  instances  can  be  found  of 
the  fact  that  the  development  of  many  organs,  if  not  all 
of  them,  is  the  result  of  direct  reactions  or  adaptations, 
which  are  in  the  nature  of  repair  to  tissues  otherwise  likely 
to  suffer  disastrously. 

It  is  large  macroscopic  results  of  this  order  which  enable 
us  to  reason  about  other  finer  reactions,  and  even  help  us 
to  link  to  the  general  process  those  of  a  microscopic  and 
ultra-microscopic  character  which  we  class  under  "  im- 
munity." Such  phenomena  are  reactions  under  stress 
which,  by  the  provocation  of  catalysts,  influence  life.  If, 
indeed,  much  of  human  character  is  similar  reaction, 
perfect  or  imperfect,  to  the  infections  to  which  the  race  has 
been  and  still  is  exposed,  psychology  itself  must  at  last  be 
classed  as  the  result  of  physical  reactions — a  conclusion 
fully  in  accord  with  the  work  of  Pavlov  on  conditioned 
reflexes. 

If  any  further  illustration  of  the  conclusions  so  far 
suggested  is  necessary,  it  may  be  found  in  the  fixation  of 


88  WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

the  mesentery,  and  the    changes    undergone    during  its 
development.     It  has    often  been  pointed  out  that  the 
embryonic    processes   by   which   it   is    made   secure    are 
histologically  those  of  plastic  organized  exudations,  i.e. 
those  which  have   been   invaded  by  fibroblasts.      These 
attachments  do  not  come  about  at  the  same  period  of 
foetal  development,  and  it  seems  of  significance  when  we 
note  that  the  mesentery  of  the  small  gut  has  an  oblique 
attachment,  to  the   posterior  abdominal  wall   from  the 
duodenum  to  the  right  iliac  fossa,  only  found  in  animals 
which  have  assumed  the  upright   posture.      This  comes 
into   existence  as   late  as  the  fourth  or  fifth  month  of 
foetal  development.     Before  this  band  formed  there  must 
have  been  a  great  series  of  disasters,  for  even  now  the 
last  part  of  the  mesentery  to  become  attached  to  the 
abdominal  wall,   that  is,   the   angle    between  the   ileum 
and  ascending  colon,  sometimes  remains  free.    A  volvulus 
may    easily    form    there    by    rotation    of   the   ileo-colic 
loop.     The   whole    history    suggests    a    series    of    lymph 
effusions,  caused  by  pathological  states,  some  of  which 
were  sorted  out  by  the  lethal  process  of  natural  selection, 
the  remainder  surviving  and  leaving  offspring  with  the 
liability  to  organize  the  effusion  in  the  safe  way.     The 
pathology  of  those  cases,  in  which  what  are  known  as  Lane's 
Kinks  can  be  found,  is  obviously  of  a  similar  character. 
The  stasis  of  the  affected  bowel  causes  lymph  effusion,  and 
the  formation  of  bands  which  are  morphologically  homo- 
logous with  the  early  attachment  of  the  mesentery.     In 
Keith's  paper,  "  Nature  of  Peritoneal  Adhesions,"  I  find 
noted  the  normal  loose  network  of  connective-tissue  bands 
between  the  elephant's  lung  and  the  pleura.     This  is  a 
physiological  development  of  evolutionary  adhesions,  and 
clearly  supports  the  pathological  development  of  many 


REPAIR  IN  EVOLUTION  89 

large  variations.  With  regard  to  mesenteric  bands  the 
same  worker  says  :  "In  securing  a  proper  fixation  of  the 
abdominal  viscera  Nature  calls  to  her  aid  processes  which 
are  usually  regarded  as  pathological."  In  this  passage 
"  Nature  "  can  obviously  be  translated  into  a  series  of 
modifiable  and  transmissible  phenomena. 

After  reviewing  phenomena  such  as  these,  the  conclusion 
seems  inevitable  that  single  small  favourable  variations 
have  not  done  the  whole  work  of  evolution.  They  may 
play  their  part  as  correlated  changes ;  but  they  then  take 
their  place  in  a  series  of  which  the  causes  can  be  recognized. 
In  combination  with  reasonable  views  of  use  and  disuse,  and 
of  increased  or  decreased  blood-supply,  they  may,  perhaps, 
be  held  to  explain  such  phenomena  as  the  delicate 
co-aptation  of  some  cardiac  valves.  Their  place  in  the 
explanation  of  the  phenomena  of  mimicry  seems  obvious. 
But  though  they  may  help  us  to  comprehend  how  tissues 
become  finished  structures,  if  they  are  combined  with  the 
results  of  functional  energy,  they  yield  no  hint  as  to  great 
or  decisive  developments,  and  the  mechanism  involved  in 
them.  If  the  reasons  adduced  for  the  thesis  laid  down  carry 
any  weight,  it  is  obvious  that  many,  if  not  most,  of  the 
really  decisive  variations  in  all  internal  structure  depended, 
and  still  depend,  not  on  variations  which  can  be  called 
favourable,  but  on  those  that  for  the  major  portion  of  the 
organisms  involved  are  directly  disastrous  ;  not  on  varia- 
tions which  are  small,  but  on  those  which  are  big 
enough  to  be  appreciable  as  the  cause  of  immense 
functional  and  structural  results ;  not  on  changes 
which  can  in  any  sense  be  called  spontaneous,  by 
which  we  may  suppose  are  meant  those  no  cause  can 
be  assigned  to,  but  on  variations,  which,  though  they 
occurred  ages  ago,  were  obviously  due  to  the  very 


90  WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

same  causes  that  the  pathologist  can  demonstrate  to  be 
working  at  the  present  day.  Only  such  organisms  as 
respond  by  direct  reactions  in  a  manner  that  finally  turns 
out  to  be  useful,  or  at  the  very  least  compatible  with  life 
and  reproduction,  are  able  to  survive.  The  whole  of 
growth  and  development  thus  becomes  largely  a  function 
of  effective  morphogenetic  repair  to  organic  failure  and 
disease. 

Though  this  is  not  the  place  to  deal  at  length  with  the 
vexed  question  of  transmission  of  modifications,  it  may 
be  remarked  that  the  foregoing  arguments  seem  to  imply 
that  such  alterations,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  are  inherited.  I 
think  some  progress  can  be  made  if  we  simply  assume 
provisionally  that  organisms  do  tend  to  repeat  them- 
selves, and  that  it  is  unlikeness  rather  than  likeness  which 
requires  explanation.  We  know  that  gross  unlikeness  is 
almost  always  due  to  a  lack  or  excess  of  some  internal 
secretion,  hormone,  or  enzyme,  and  from  this  it  may  be 
inferred  that  likeness  is  due  to  such  catalytic  machinery 
coming  over  in  the  zygote,  and  to  each  differentiation 
producing  anew  its  own  peculiar  products  which  stimulate 
or  inhibit  further  growth  and  differentiation.  Some 
time  ago  I  was  struck  by  a  remark  of  Starling's,  that  each 
new  organism  seemed  a  fresh  "  creation."  He  gave  this 
up  on  account  of  the  difficulty  he  found  in  the  "  time 
element  "  of  the  problem ;  but  I  venture  to  think  he  was 
right  in  his  surmise.1  There  is  a  growing  body  of  opinion 
in  support  of  this  view,  as  the  names  of  Cunningham, 
MacBride,  Dendy,  and  Bourne  seem  to  bear  witness.  We 
must  certainly  take  into  account  these  hormonic  regulators 
of  metabolism,  and  if  we  accept  the  view  that  hyper- 
thyroidism  is  the  direct  cause  of  the  phenomena  seen  in 

1  See  Chapter  VII.,  Heredity  and  Environment. 


REPAIR  IN  EVOLUTION  91 

Graves'  Disease,  just  as  hyper-  or  hypo-pituitarism  causes 
giantism  or  infantilism  in  children,  while  a  later  overgrowth 
of  the  gland  causes  acromegaly,  I  see  no  difficulty  in  accept- 
ing the  hypothesis  that  growth  is  determined,  i.e.  stimulated 
or  finally  inhibited,  by  non-living  catalysts  or  secretions 
not  necessarily  confined  to  the  endocrine  organs.  In  this 
way  a  bridge  may  perhaps  be  built  between  the  orthodox 
Weismannian  and  the  Lamarckian.  Growth  and  character 
are  caused  by  determinants ;  but  these  are  not  parts  of  the 
cytoplasm  itself,  they  are  the  machinery  by  and  through 
which  living  matter  acts.  The  organism  is  not  built 
up  by  special  protoplasm,  or  by  entelechies,  or  by  any 
mysterious  elan  creatif.  It  arises  from  the  definite  influence 
of  definite  catalysts  originating,  in  an  orderly  sequence, 
as  the  organs  become  differentiated,  while  the  individual 
is  as  a  whole  exposed  in  an  infinite  progression  to  the 
internal  and  external  stimuli  of  a  like  but  slowly  changing 
environment  to  which  it  reacts.  The  factors  which  did 
the  work  are  working  now. 

To  recapitulate  the  tentative  conclusions  arrived  at, 
it  may  be  suggested  that : 

1.  Mechanical  reaction  to  stress  is  a  general  law  of  all 
tissues. 

2.  Morbid  conditions  in  many  cases  give  rise  to  repair 
which  becomes  physiological. 

3.  Such  repairs  lead  to  new  functions,  new  stresses, 
further  morbid  states,  and  further  repair. 

4.  These  factors  are  some  of  the  main  causes  of  specific 
and  generic  differences. 

5.  In  all  probability  transmission  of  changes  caused 
in  the  way  indicated  takes  place  by  a  morphogenetic  reply 
in  utero  to  increased  functional  stresses. 

6.  As  it  is  a  narrow  view  to  assume  that  pathology 


92  WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

in  all  cases  tends  to  death,  the  study  of  pathology  and 
general  physiology  should  be  part  of  the  preparation  of 
the  biologist. 

REFERENCES. 

BAYLISS,  W.  M. — "  Principles  of  General  Physiology,"  1918. 
BLAND-SUTTON,  Sir  JOHN. — (i)  "Tumours,"  1918  ;  (2)  "Evolu- 
tion and  Disease." 
BRAMANN. — "  Descensus    Testiculorum,"    His.    Arch.,     1884, 

pp.  310-40. 
HUNTER,  JOHN. — "Works"  (ed.  Owen),  vol.  iv.,  "  Descent  of 

Testis,"  p.  i. 

KAMMERER.  P. — v.  MacBride's  paper,  infra. 
KEITH,  ARTHUR. — "  Nature  of  Peritoneal  Adhesions,"  Lancet, 

London,  1914,  p.  362;  "Menders  of  the  Maimed,"  1919. 
LEWIS,  T. — "  Mechanism  of  the  Heart  Beat,"  1911. 
MACBRIDE,   E.  W. — "  Are  Acquired  Characters   Inherited  ?  " 

Trans.  S.E.  Union  of  Scientific  Societies,  1917. 
STARLING,  E.  H.— (i)  "  Physiology  "  ;   (2)  "  Law  of  the  Heart," 

1916. 

SUTTON,  H.  G. — "  Lectures  on  Pathology." 
WOLFF,  JULIUS. — "  Law  of  Bone  Transformation,"  Acad.  Science, 

Berlin,  1892. 


CHAPTER   IV 

INHIBITION  AND  THE  CARDIAC  VAGUS  J 

THE  history  of  science  records  the  birth,  life,  and 
death  of  many  conceptions,  which,  although  they 
seemed  to  reconcile  contradictions  triumphantly,  in  the 
end  did  but  serve  to  show  how  hypotheses  can  rise  to  the 
rank  of  theories,  and  yet  finally  be  disposed  of  by  some  stray 
fact.  Just  as  some  conqueror  in  his  hour  of  victory  falls 
to  a  chance  bullet,  so  they  succumb  at  last.  They  may  for 
the  time  be  "  true  "  ;  they  serve,  that  is,  as  a  temporary 
shelter  or  clearing  house  for  contradictory  observations, 
and  thus  produce  the  semblance  of  order.  Deep  within 
them  there  may  be  even  some  hint  of  real  explanation. 
It  was  so  with  the  ancient  view  of  the  arteries,  to  which  the 
very  word  bears  witness.  They  were,  indeed,  air  vessels 
even  if  the  observations  leading  to  such  a  conclusion  were 

1  An  abstract  of  this  paper  was  printed  in  The  British  Medical  Journal, 
September  14,  1918,  and  since  re-writing  and  developing  it,  I  note  that 
R.  M.  M'Nair  Wilson  ("  Meaning  of  Tachycardia,"  ibid.,  January  17, 
1920)  practically  adopts  Luciani's  view,  with  which  I  was  not  acquainted, 
that  the  vagus  is  "  a  nerve  of  diastole,"  and  adds,  "  this  nerve  would 
seem  not  to  be  inhibitor  in  the  narrow  sense,  but  rather  to  act  by  in- 
creasing the  filling  time  in  response,  no  doubt,  to  stimulation  from  the 
cortex."  Although  I  do  not  wholly  agree  with  this  in  all  its  implications, 
yet  as  I  have  expressed  doubts  as  to  whether  tachycardia  is  to  be  attri- 
buted to  disturbance  of  the  pace-maker  itself,  it  is  of  interest  to  me  to 
note  that  Wilson  holds  the  view  that  it  is  due  to  a  compensating  accelera- 
tion when  the  ventricular  systole  cannot  get  rid  of  the  diastolic  intake. 
This,  I  imagine,  is  also  the  opinion  of  T.  Lewis,  who  states  that  tachycardia 
does  not  originate  in  the  pace-maker. 

93 


94     WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

incomplete.  So,  too,  with  Phlogiston,  which  was  both  false 
and  true,  and  passed  away  as  explanation  when  the  actual 
nature  of  combustion  was  discovered.  Many  such  con- 
ceptions must  exist  now,  and  possibly  among  them  may  be 
reckoned  some  orthodox  conceptions  of  physiology. 

It  is  a  mark  of  false  but  useful  theory  that  in  the  end 
it  raises  more  questions  than  it  disposes  of.  In  its 
explanation  other  hypotheses  are  built  up  which  contradict 
each  other,  while  none  can  be  found  to  reconcile  them.  But 
if  the  original  conception  is  held  obstinately,  even  further 
observations  are  tortured  into  supporting  it.  In  such 
cases  free  speculation  and  criticism  may  play  a  useful  part. 

If  there  is  any  physiological  subject  in  which  speculation 
of  all  kinds  is  allowable  on  such  grounds  it  is,  perhaps, 
Inhibition.  There  are  facts  of  observation  in  abundance,  as 
any  text-book  of  physiology  proves,  while  the  hypotheses, 
sometimes  misnamed  theories,  which  seek  to  explain 
them  are  both  difficult  and  contradictory.  It  seemed  to 
me,  when  considering  the  subject,  that  the  function  of 
the  cardiac  vagus,  in  which,  according  to  accepted  views, 
inhibition  means  not  only  cessation  of  action  in  some 
muscles,  but  the  actual  weakening  of  the  whole  heart, 
might  form  a  key,  if  not  to  unlock  the  mysteries  of  inhibition, 
at  the  least  to  show  some  possible  flaws  in  accepted  opinion. 
It  appeared  likely  that  not  only  had  results  obtained 
in  the  laboratory,  often  of  a  pathological  or  traumatic 
origin,  not  been  compared  with  normal  physiological  action, 
but  that  few  inquirers  had  sought  for  analogies  in  other 
organisms  by  which  inhibition  and  its  action  could  be 
understood.  It  certainly  appeared  as  if  some  clue  were 
needed  to  the  problem,  so  far  without  real  explanation,  as 
to  the  manner  in  which  the  vagus  centre  could  "put  the 
heart  out  of  action,"  and  yet  increase  the  action  of  the 


INHIBITION  AND  CARDIAC  VAGUS          95 

intestine.  In  saying  so  it  has  not  been  forgotten  that 
inhibition  is  admitted  by  most  to  be  no  more  than  a 
covering  word  for  various  observations.  Such  a  covering 
word,  however,  tends  to  obtain  illegitimate  sanctions  by 
continued  use,  and  if  it  is  asked  to  shelter  not  only  mere 
physiological  stoppage  of  action,  as  when  a  muscle  is  thrown 
out  of  gear,  but  also  a  pathological  process  in  which  the 
subject  may  die  of  cardiac  failure,  a  better  one  must 
surely  be  sought. 

In  the  first  place,  it  may  be  asked  whether  inhibition, 
in  any  case,  is  a  safe  word  to  employ,  even  if  the  facts 
observed  are  found  to  support  the  general  notion.  Nothing 
is  clearer  than  that  the  use  of  a  word,  which  is,  as  it  were, 
sanctified  by  special  employment  in  other  connections 
than  those  of  science,  needs  the  closest  examination.  The 
connotation  of  the  term  as  commonly  employed  is  purely 
"psychological,"  that  is  to  say,  it  is  a  "portmanteau" 
word  for  the  interruptions  of  functions  by  "  forbiddance," 
or  obvious  and  useful  shorthand  for  a  complex  of  con- 
ditioned reflexes  which,  on  being  excited,  repress  certain 
actions  by  turning  energy  in  other  directions.  For  we 
cannot  suppose  that  an  "inhibited  "  clergyman  does  not 
in  some  way  employ  his  energy  on  paths  previously  little 
used  or  not  used  at  all.  Just  as  spoken  words  are  sound 
signals  which  excite  reflex  action,  so  the  bishop's  written 
words  of  inhibition,  when  they  stop  a  certain  function, 
set  others  in  action,  whether  it  be  over  emotional  tracts 
of  indignation,  surprise,  or  anger,  or  over  carefully  con- 
sidered remonstrance  worked  out  by  "  volition  "  over  the 
pyramidal  tract  in  motor  reactions  which  produce  an  answer 
and  demand  investigation.  Yet  using  the  common  verbal 
shorthand,  we  say  the  clergyman  has  been  "inhibited"  by 
the  bishop,  as  if  some  direct  influence,  not  to  be  analysed 


96     WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

into  historic  ecclesiastical  tradition  and  custom,  has  pro- 
duced mere  inability,  and  reduced  the  inhibited  to  temporary 
paralysis.  Taking  the  word  into  science  has  produced 
similar  results  since  some  eminent  physiologists  have  used 
the  very  word  "influence  "  of  the  supposed  vagus  action 
on  the  heart.  They  would  doubtless  own  that  they,  too, 
employed  the  word  as  shorthand ;  but  if,  as  I  think  the 
facts  show,  all  sorts  of  inhibition,  save  those  due  to  the 
pathological  conditions  vaguely  summed  up  as  "shock," 
are  the  result  of  substituted  excitational  actions,  direct 
or  upon  other  paths,  there  is  no  more  need  to  use  the 
word  as  opposed  to  excitation  than  there  is  to  say  that 
work  is  inhibited  by  the  sound  of  the  dinner-bell.  What 
really  happens  in  such  a  case  is  the  conditioned  reflex- 
closing  of  some  synapses  of  the  brain,  and  the  easy  opening 
of  others  leading  to  the  reflex  instinctive  satisfactions  of 
food. 

The  answer  to  these  questions  seems  to  depend  upon 
the  processes  which  take  place  in  one  muscle  when  its  anta- 
gonist is  stimulated.  There  are  probably  few  more  difficult 
subjects  in  physiology  than  that  of  contractile  tissue ;  but 
to  say  that  when  a  muscle  goes  out  of  action  it  is  "in- 
hibited," surely  takes  us  no  further,  since  it  is  only  putting 
into  obscure  words  what  we  already  know.  It  was  the 
belief  that  the  action  of  the  stimulated  cardiac  vagus  was 
excitatory  of  some  really  active  process  which  led  me  to 
inquire  whether  inhibition  in  the  sense  of  weakening  ever 
occurred  save  in  pathological  cases,  for,  if  it  did  not,  it 
seemed  to  follow  inevitably  that  the  relaxation  of  a  muscle 
was  in  some  way  a  positive  process  in  which  there  was  some 
substituted  action,  not  a  time  of  rest.  For  a  muscle's  time 
of  rest  should  be  the  refractory  period.  At  first  it  seemed  as 
if  the  facts  could  be  explained,  if  not  by  a  process  of 


INHIBITION  AND  CARDIAC  VAGUS  97 

"  drainage,"  at  least  by  the  deduction  that  a  muscle  "  went 
out  of  action  "  owing  to  the  fact  that  it  sent  no  afferent, 
and  received  no  answering  efferent  messages.  Yet  as  I 
believed  that  there  was  a  definitely  active  process  shown 
in  the  diastole  on  normal  physiological  stimulation,  it  at 
last  seemed  certain  that  muscle-lengthening  was  not  at  all 
an  inhibitory  but  an  exciting  process.  It  did  not  seem 
legitimate  to  say  that  lengthening  took  place  "  naturally," 
even  if  the  word  was  interpreted  as  implying  local  processes 
of  communicated  strains,  and  cessation  of  strains,  acting 
directly  as  kinds  of  primitive  reflexes.  What  then  is  the 
action  of  muscle  when  lengthening  ?  As  there  are  de- 
formations of  the  muscle  cells  in  contraction,  why  should 
there  not  be  active  deformation  in  its  opposite  ?  Such 
deformations  must  depend  on  physico-chemical  factors 
such  as  surface  tension  and  osmosis.  If  a  muscle  cell 
alters  its  shape  when  stimulated  to  contract,  we  can 
imagine  its  molecules  ranged  in  a  column  of  two, 
"  forming  fours,"  and  closing  up.  In  the  opposite 
process  the  column  of  two  molecules  will  become  a 
column  of  single  ones.  Thus  relaxation  becomes  a 
positive  lengthening  process  of  active  deformation.  If 
there  are  no  special  muscles  of  diastole  in  the  heart  acted 
on  directly  by  the  vagus  as  a  motor  nerve,  some  such 
process  must  account  for  the  active  diastole.  It  was 
a  long  time  after  some  of  these  considerations  occurred 
to  me  that  a  real  explanation  of  cardiac  negative  pressure 
seemed  possible. 

We  find  it,  however,  stated  authoritatively  that 
stimulation  of  the  cardiac  vagus  is  followed,  not  by  the 
mere  throwing  out  of  action  of  another  muscle,  but  by 
a  slowing  of  the  rate,  a  diminution  of  the  energy,  and  a 
slackening  in  the  rate  of  conduction  of  the  Bundle  of  His  and 
7 


98  WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

of  the  whole  heart.  The  vagus  fibres  are  thus  conceived 
as  actually  depressant  fibres,  while  the  accelerator  (or  aug- 
mentor)  acts,  it  is  said,  in  exactly  the  opposite  way.  Since 
such  views  are  founded  on  observations  first  made  by  the 
Webers,  which  cannot  be  placed  in  the  category  of  ordinary 
reflex  inhibition  with  substituted  action,  some  further 
examination  of  the  deductions  drawn  may  surely  be 
made  with  a  view  of  determining  whether  the  cardiac 
vagus  really  plays  the  part  assigned  to  it,  and  whether 
the  view  stated  above  can  throw  light  not  only  upon 
ordinary  "  inhibition,"  but  on  the  real  nature  of  the  cardiac 
diastole. 

Although  there  is  great  reluctance  on  the  part  of  physio- 
logists to  acknowledge  that  experiments,  however  great 
their  value,  are  often  misleading,  it  is  just  as  true  to  say  so 
as  to  say  that  what  happens  in  vitro  is  not  always  repeated 
in  vivo.  If  it  were,  practical  medicine  would  be  less 
uncertain  than  it  is.  But  just  as  the  living  organism  with 
its  unmeasured  complexities  thwarts  and  disappoints  both 
physician  and  pharmacologist,  so  the  animal  experimented 
on,  in  conditions  which  are  pathological  and  unnatural  from 
the  very  beginning,  cannot  always  show,  and  cannot  be 
expected  to  show,  the  reactions  due  to  natural  stimuli  when 
subjected,  probably  under  conditions  of  trauma,  to  stimuli 
with  which  evolution  has  not  made  it  acquainted.  To  say 
so  much  is  not  to  urge  any  vital  objection  to  experiment, 
but  merely  to  caution  those  who,  when  they  obtain  interest- 
ing results,  believe  they  are  physiological.  If  in  general  a 
negative  effect  obtained  by  nerve  stimulation  requires 
explanation,  how  much  more  is  needed  to  make  it  credible 
that  evolution  has  contrived,  by  the  mechanism  of  the 
cardiac  vagus,  a  means  not  only  of  weakening  the  organism, 
but  of  actually  bringing  about  its  death  ? 


99 

When  any  man  dies  of  sudden  heart  failure  without 
cardiac  disease  or  degeneration  it  is  commonly  attributed 
to  "shock."  Whatever  "shock"  may  be,  and  something 
relevant  to  the  subject  may  be  urged  later,  it  is  usually 
brought  about  by  violent  stimulation  of  an  unusual  kind, 
such  as  severe  trauma  with  its  concomitant  results.  It  is 
obvious  that  the  heart,  especially  in  delicately  balanced 
organisms,  is  subject  to  continual  fluctuations  in  its  rate 
and  energy.  In  it  any  excitatory,  or  depressant,  stimuli 
bring  about  reflex  cardiac  results,  in  which,  doubtless,  the 
vagus  is  often  implicated.  In  a  minor  degree  they,  too, 
may  often  be  said  to  suffer  from  shock,  for  in  that  con- 
dition the  state  of  the  circulation  is  a  major  factor.  If 
they  are  depressed  there  is  weakening  and  slowing  of  the 
heart,  a  possible  accumulation  of  blood  in  the  abdominal 
veins,  or  even  some  loss  of  the  fluid  constituents  of  the  blood 
by  failure  of  osmotic  balance,  such  as  seen  in  undoubted 
traumatic  shock  (Bayliss),  temporary  anaemia  of  the  brain, 
collapse,  and  possibly  loss  of  consciousness.  Such  results, 
although  they  may  upon  occasion  save  the  life  of  those 
who  suffer  from  them,  are  undoubtedly  dangerous,  and  in 
that  sense  pathological.  It  seems  possible,  then,  that  the 
equivalent  or  allied  phenomena  seen  in  animals,  when  the 
cut  vagus  is  stimulated  artificially,  may  be  of  a  similar 
kind,  and  that  any  physiological  deductions  as  to  the 
action  of  the  cardiac  vagus  are,  to  say  the  least,  some- 
what hasty. 

Since  shock  has  been  of  late  the  subject  of  much  re- 
search, and  of  especially  valuable  practical  work  by 
Bayliss,  something  at  least  is  known  of  its  nature.  Judg- 
ing, however,  from  recent  notices  of  it  in  medical  journals, 
it  is  to  be  observed  that  the  main  symptoms  of  severe,  or 
possibly  lethal,  shock  only  are  dilated  upon.  The  influence 


100         WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

of  damaged  muscle  products,  and  the  loss  of  blood  fluid 
through  the  walls  of  the  veins  and  arteries,  are  certainly, 
as  it  seems,  the  principal  phenomena  of  the  drama ;  but 
since  all  physiological  phenomena  can  only  be  conceived 
as  verging  gradually  into  pathological  forms,  and  as  we 
cannot  understand  pathology,  except  as  divergence  from 
useful  function  or  structure,  it  inevitably  follows  that 
stimulation  itself  can  be  so  accentuated  that  it  becomes, 
firstly,  excessive,  secondly,  abnormal,  and  at  last  crosses 
the  vague  border-line  and  becomes  pathological.  So,  from 
the  psychological,  or  complex  cerebral  point  of  view,  we 
see  the  varying  results  of  mild  and  severe  surprise,  mere 
fright,  or  excessive  terror  exciting  more  and  more  violent 
motor  reactions  or  producing  collapse,  paralysis  of  all 
effort,  total  unconsciousness,  or  even  death.  There  is 
therefore  no  need  whatever  to  confine  the  use  of  the  word 
shock  to  extreme  phenomena.  Anything  which  interrupts 
normal  function,  whether  by  vaso-motor  means,  by  the 
excitation  of  some  glands,  or  by  producing  synaptic 
block,  or  its  exact  opposite,  may  be  ranked  under  its 
heading. 

In  accordance  with  what  is  laid  down  elsewhere,  some- 
thing more  may  be  learnt  of  these  phenomena  if  any 
mechanical,  biological,  or  social  analogies  can  be  discovered. 
Incidentally  such  an  inquiry  should  throw  some  light, 
however  dim,  upon  inhibition  itself.  When  a  social 
"  shock,"  such  as  a  great  national  calamity,  is  experienced, 
what  are  the  phenomena  observed  ?  The  outstanding  fact 
is  that  every  one's  attention  is  diverted  from  his  task, 
and  that  for  a  time,  longer  or  shorter  according  to  circum- 
stances, work  ceases,  or  is  greatly  slackened.  In  certain 
factories,  for  instance,  in  which  the  energy  used  is 
supplied  by  machinery,  the  engineer  might  even  stop  it 


INHIBITION  AND  CARDIAC  VAGUS         101 

altogether.  It  may  be  remarked,  by  the  way,  that  in 
such  a  case  energy  would  be  stored  in  the  boilers  if  the  fires 
were  not  drawn  or  neglected.  Such  a  storage  of  energy 
may  be  seen  during  temporary  slowing  of  a  physiological 
process,  such  as  at  first  follows  on  vagal  stimulation  of  the 
intestine.  If  the  social  shock  is  not  too  great,  some- 
thing of  the  same  result  follows.  If  the  work  in  hand  is 
very  necessary,  it  is  probably  returned  to  with  greater 
vigour  after  the  pause.  Or  it  is  diverted  to  functions 
still  more  necessary  in  the  new  circumstances.  But  when 
such  a  shock  is  very  great,  it  is  not  followed  by  physio- 
logical renewed  action,  nor  is  it  diverted.  Action  is  entirely 
"inhibited,"  and  energy  is  wasted.  How  is  that  energy 
wasted  ?  Energy  must  do  work.  What  then  is  done  ? 
It  was  said  by  a  great  physician  that  unity  was  health,  and 
separation  disease.  He  spoke  truly,  for  with  separation 
in  any  organism  there  is  waste  of  energy.  Nothing  gets 
done.  In  a  social  organism  there  follows  on  great  shock  a 
degree  of  disintegration,  with  concomitant  anger,  argument, 
recrimination,  so  that  energy  is  wasted  in  mere  social  heat 
instead  of  used  in  combined  directed  labour.  Shock,  then, 
is  plainly  a  disruptive  phenomenon,  whether  seen  in  a 
social  or  animal  unit.  In  the  animal  no  organ  works  well 
and  none  works  with  another.  Secretions,  hormones,  cata- 
lysts, and  the  whole  machinery  of  life  are  altered.  The 
nervous  system  ceases  to  function  rightly  ;  tone,  nervous 
or  muscular,  is  lowered,  the  blood  accumulates  in  the 
splanchic  area,  the  veins  lose  their  serum.  Instead  of  real 
symbiosis  there  is  a  dead  indifference — if  the  psychological 
phrase  may  be  allowed :  the  fundamental  hostility  at  the 
bottom  of  symbiosis  may  cease  its  powerful  action.  It  is 
almost  as  if  in  a  wrecked  ship  all  hands  broke  into  the 
spirit  room,  for  in  the  shocked  organism  excretion  is  inter- 


102          WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

fered  with,  and  there  is  no  cell  unpoisoned,  unintoxicated. 
Such  effects  of  wasted,  or  undirected,  energy  may  be  seen  in 
special  cases  to  which  the  word  shock  cannot  be  employed. 
In  the  failing  heart  auricular  fibrillation  is  the  untimed 
contractions  of  disorganized  fibres.  It  is  the  same  with 
cardiac  flutter.  In  a  racing  boat ,  when  exhaustion  overtakes 
the  crew,  they  do  not  pull  together.  Unable  any  longer  to 
receive  the  rhythmic  stimulus  of  stroke,  each  man's 
reaction  time  or  personal  equation  masters  him.  And 
each  man's  differs.  The  boat  slows  and,  perhaps,  finally 
stops.  "  The  crew  went  to  pieces."  It  is  so  with  utter 
exhaustion.  It  is  so  in  shock.  And  undoubtedly  the 
liability  to  such  complete  disruption  increases  as  the 
organism  becomes  higher,  and  the  degree  of  interdepen- 
dence of  the  organs  increases.  In  the  most  developed 
nervous  types  the  heart  seems  the  first  organ  to  feel  shock 
of  any  kind.  Something  or  another  has  "  gone  to  pieces  "  ; 
some  function  has  been  interrupted,  whether  by  a  disin- 
tegrative  process  in  cells  leading  to  an  interruption  of  revers- 
ible reactions  of  colloids,  or  by  some  other  failure.  The 
processes  by  which  energy  is  stored  and  released  in 
muscle  are  as  obscure  as  they  are  remarkable,  and  it  is 
possible  that  cardiac  shock  may  be  found  at  last  to  be  the 
result  of  an  abnormal  colloidal  process  depending  upon  an 
excessive  "  trigger  action  "  of  the  cardiac  vagus. 

For  many  reasons  it  seems  impossible  to  accept  un- 
reservedly the  physiological  doctrine  that  stimulation  of  a 
nerve  is  but  "trigger  action"  to  the  muscle  it  sets  going, 
and  that  no  more  energy  passes  over  from  the  end-plate 
than  an  amount  so  small  as  not  to  be  measurable.  If  some 
of  the  conclusions  as  to  nervous  action  were  not  called 
in  question  by  other  accepted,  or  partially  accepted,  views, 
it  might  seem  hazardous  to  make  such  an  assertion. 


INHIBITION  AND  CARDIAC  VAGUS         103 

But  assuredly  Wrightson's  Theory  of  Hearing,  which  has 
able  advocates,  throws  doubt  on  many  accepted  opinions. 
Moreover,  those  who  have  had  the  doubtful  advantage  of 
receiving  a  severe  and  unexpected  electric  shock  with  a 
powerful  muscular  reaction  which,  as  it  seems,  might  in 
some  cases  tear  away  a  ligament  or  even  snap  a  bone,  will 
have  suspicions  of  the  "  trigger  "  doctrine.  If  the  function 
of  the  vagus  is  not  to  produce  some  kind  of  excitation,  the 
phrase  "  trigger  action  "  does  not  apply.  "  Trigger  action  " 
in  a  gun  is  a  measurable  amount  of  energy,  and  so  is  the 
energy  in  the  cartridge.  And  in  ordinary  cases,  where 
the  gun  and  the  cartridge  are  what  we  may  call  "  physio- 
logical," that  is,  in  such  a  state  that  the  normal  hammer 
fall  produces  the  normal  explosion,  an  abnormally  powerful 
hammer  impact  will  produce  no  more  powder  energy  than  a 
merely  adequate  one.  Yet  if  a  powerful  nerve  excitation 
occurs,  there  is  more  than  a  normal  explosion  of  muscle 
energy.  In  this  case,  if  the  nerve  acts  as  a  whole,  more 
energy  does  "  go  over,"  for,  if  in  ordinary  conditions 
only  a  few  fibres  are  affected,  with  the  stronger  stimulation 
all  may  be  called  into  play.  In  either  case  the  facts  suggest 
that  more  energetic  stimulation  does  cause  greater,  or  even 
disastrous  effects,  showing  that  "  trigger  action  "  is  not  a 
sound  analogy.  It  is  therefore  easy  to  understand  how  it 
is  that  abnormal  vagal  stimulation  results  in  "  shock  " 
or  disintegrating  action.  There  seem  more  analogies 
between  electric  and  nervous  phenomena  than  the  usual 
nerve  theories  allow.  For  if  in  electric  "  flex,"  composed 
of  a  large  number  of  very  fine  wires,  some  of  these  fibres 
are  cut,  the  lamp  does  not  light,  whereas,  if  more  volts  are 
applied  to  the  unaltered  wire,  "shock"  results,  and  the 
incandescent  filaments  fuse.  It  should  be  remembered 
that  action  resulting  in  shock  is  not  an  entity,  totus,  teres 


104          WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

atque  rotundus,  it  is  a  function  of  the  two  variables — stimulus, 
and  the  condition  of  the  stimulated  organism.  It  may  be 
little  or  more  and  more.  The  further  it  is  considered  the 
more  justifiable  it  appears  to  regard  it  as  a  stimulus  pro- 
ducing pathological  effects,  and  such  views  are  in  keeping 
with  the  notion  that  the  vagus  normally  is  not  "  depressor," 
but,  being  a  most  delicate  adjustment  agent,  can  easily 
become  such.  We  can  certainly  imagine  that  its  action  is 
depressing  if  all  the  vagus  fibres  are  excited  at  once,  which 
probably  never  happens  in  physiological  conditions.  So 
very  rarely  can  all  the  fibres  of  the  biceps  be  excited 
together.  There  are  nearly  a  thousand  fibres  in  its  trunk. 
If  the  violent  tonic  spasm,  produced  by  strong  electric 
stimulation,  excites  them  all  together  the  phenomenon  is 
explicable.  Otherwise  we  must  assume,  as  said  above, 
what  no  physiologist  seems  to  believe,  that  energy  does 
really  pass  over  from  the  end-plate  into  the  muscle  itself. 

If  then  shock  be  a  complex  of  such  phenomena,  and 
if  it  is  hard  to  conceive  that  evolution  has  made  physio- 
logical stimulation  of  the  vagus  a  means  of  destruction, 
it  necessarily  follows  that  its  experimental  stimulation, 
leading  to  weakening  and  failure  of  the  heart,  is  essentially 
pathological,  and  that  from  what  occurs  no  legitimate 
physiological  deductions  can  be  drawn.  The  Webers 
discovered  an  interesting  fact ;  but  all  they  noted 
must  be  classed  as  pathological  or  traumatic.  Doubt  is 
thus  thrown  upon  the  view  that  the  vagus  can  weaken  a 
muscle  in  one  place  and  stimulate  it  in  another.  Nothing 
will  co-ordinate  the  facts  but  some  proof,  or  suggestion 
of  proof,  that  the  vagus  exerts  both  on  heart  muscle  and 
smooth  muscle  an  "  influence "  which  helps  both  to 
function  better. 

What  then  is  the  real  function  of  the  cardiac  vagus  ? 


INHIBITION  AND  CARDIAC  VAGUS         105 

When  it  is  considered  that  every  act  of  breathing  and  every 
change  of  posture  send  vagus  messages  to  the  heart,  it 
seems  obvious  that  the  nerve  fibres  are  adapted  to  control 
the  heart's  action,  and  enable  it  to  do  its  work.  Such 
messages  are  truly  physiological,  and  cannot  be  measured 
in  electrical  language.  But  though  they  cannot  be  so 
measured,  the  changes  induced  are  of  definite  advantage 
to  the  organism,  and  indicate  one  of  the  most  delicate 
adaptations  to  gravity,  or  slight  efforts,  to  be  found  in  the 
mammalian  body.  Vagal  or  youthful  irregularity  of  the 
heart  is  doubtless  of  a  similar  kind.  In  this  kind  of  cardiac 
arrhythmia,  still  frequently  mistaken  by  some  medical 
men  for  serious  disease,  the  heart  slows  after  every  inspira- 
tion, while,  if  the  patient  holds  his  breath,  the  irregularity 
tends  to  disappear.  Though  it  is  now  known,  owing  to  the 
work  of  Mackenzie,  that  it  has  no  pathological  significance 
whatsoever,  it  certainly  has  a  physiological  signification 
as  showing  to  what  immeasurably  small  stimuli  the  normal 
heart  can  and  does  respond.  It  may  eventually  be  found 
that,  though  the  slowing  occurs  during  expiration,  the 
vagal  stimulation  is  experienced  during  inspiration,  when 
the  lungs  expand.  In  a  pathological  case,  the  mere  act  of 
swallowing  stimulates  the  vagus,  and  produces  heart-block 
a  few  seconds  later.  The  more  these  facts  are  considered 
the  less  likely  does  it  seem  that  a  tied-up  animal,  with  a  cut 
vagus  electrically  stimulated,  can  be  held  to  show  pheno- 
mena on  a  cardiogram  which  are  remotely  relevant  to 
normal  vagal  action.  Moreover,  even  when  pressure  over 
the  vagus  is  applied  at  the  neck  and  slowing  results,  there 
is  no  evidence  to  prove  that  the  result  is  directly  due  to 
the  pressure,  since  it  is,  on  these  general  lines,  far  more 
likely  to  be  due  to  the  partial  interruption  of  the  circulation, 
and  a  vagal  attempt  at  vaso-motor  readjustment. 


106         WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

From  such  considerations  it  follows  that  an  inquiry 
must  be  made  as  to  how  the  vagus  acts  on  the  heart  physio- 
logically, and  what  its  real  functions  are.  Such  a  question 
leads  to  a  fresh  study  of  the  heart's  mechanism,  and  the  rdle 
played  by  the  augmentor  as  well  as  the  vagus.  Even  if 
the  notion  that  the  vagus  normally  weakens  the  heart  be 
put  aside  as  contradicting  the  whole  course  of  evolution, 
and  if  the  facts  can  be  otherwise  explained  when  it  does 
happen  to  have  that  effect,  it  may,  at  least,  be  admitted 
that  it  certainly  slows  the  heart  on  stimulation,  just  as 
the  augmentor  or  accelerator  fibres  quicken  it.  But 
reasonable  slowness  of  action  by  no  means  implies  weaken- 
ing or  fatigue.  The  heart  can  be  slowed  in  many  ways, 
by  the  toxins  of  fatigue  or  disease,  by  high  blood-pressure, 
by  a  depletion  of  the  higher  centres  owing  to  vaso-motor 
action  (Mackenzie) ;  but  if  it  is  slowed  physiologically,  it 
must  be  for  advantageous  action,  and  what  is  seen  in  ex- 
periment is,  at  least,  partially  irrelevant,  even  if  the  whole 
of  the  phenomena,  when  understood,  can  be  linked  together. 
Following  the  method  hitherto  adopted,  we  may  seek  for 
illustrations  of  slowing  in  something  that  resembles  an 
organism,  and  try  to  discover  why  it  happens,  and  what  it 
effects.  Let  such  an  organism  or  individual  be  a  University 
eight.  In  a  well-trained  crew  the  endeavour  of  the  trainer 
has  been  to  get  a  long,  slow,  "  well-pulled-through  "  action ; 
but  when  the  crew  become  tired  they  are  apt  to  accelerate 
the  stroke,  and  make  it  short  and  "  snatchy."  It  is  found 
that  more  power  is  obtained  by  the  long  and  slow  stroke, 
and  when  the  coxswain  or  the  stroke  oar  think  it  time  to 
quicken,  both  are  well  aware  the  reserve  power  of  the  crew 
is  being  drawn  upon.  When  the  slower  rate  is  maintained, 
"  inhibition  "  is  the  inhibition  of  the  accelerator,  not 
inhibition  of  the  strength  of  the  crew.  By  inhibiting 


INHIBITION  AND  CARDIAC  VAGUS         107 

rapidity  and  the  waste  of  unregulated  energy,  power  is 
conserved.  Quite  legitimately  we  may  regard  stroke  as 
the  pace-maker,  and  cox  as  central  control.  If  in  the  heart 
we  regard  "  inhibition  "  by  the  vagus  as  inhibition  of 
the  accelerators  themselves,  we  obtain  a  physiological  view 
of  the  whole  cardiac  drama,  which,  in  fact,  puts  it  into 
line  with  the  muscular  phenomena  of  reciprocal  innerva- 
tion.  I  am  aware  that  physiologists,  dominated  by  what 
they  observe  in  the  laboratory,  maintain  that  such  an 
illustration  does  not  illustrate,  as  they  say  the  heart's  force 
is  really  weakened.  But  the  objections  to  this  are  many 
more  than  those  already  mentioned.  All  the  facts  of 
mechanics  and  physics  are  against  it.  When  an  engine  is 
stopped  or  slowed,  it  is  not  weakened.  On  the  contrary, 
it  is  strengthened,  i.e.  energy  accumulates,  and  the  boiler 
pressure  rises.  Questions  of  energetics  also  arise,  for  if, 
as  physiologists  say,  the  nerve  only  pulls  the  trigger, 
what  action  occurs  in  the  heart  muscle  as  it  slows  ?  Does 
it  waste  its  energy  under  normal  stimulation,  postural, 
inspiratory,  or  expiratory  ?  And  if  its  energy  is  wasted, 
what  becomes  of  it,  and  how  does  its  free  energy  become 
bound  energy  ?  It  seems,  having  got  so  far,  that  no  effort 
has  been  made  to  ascertain  whether  the  real  function  of 
the  vagus,  as  regards  the  brain  itself,  is  not  to  control  the 
accelerator  centre,  and  the  action  of  the  accelerator  centre 
to  modify  vagus  action.  Such  an  opinion  might,  I  think, 
correlate  and  explain  many  of  the  observed  phenomena, 
and  it  would  certainly  bring  them  into  line  with  those  seen 
in  engines  of  all  kinds,  while  it  does  not  contradict  direct 
cardiac  action. 

It  still  remains,  even  if  these  views  are  allowed  to  have 
any  force,  to  ask  in  what  way  the  vagus  actually  influences 
the  heart  ?  If  it  slows  it,  not  to  weaken  it,  but  to  allow  it 


108          WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

time  to  recuperate  and  gather  energy,  just  as  the  vagus 
when  acting  on  an  intestine  has  at  first  a  slowing,  "  in- 
hibitory "  effect  upon  it,  on  what  in  the  heart  does  the 
vagus  act  ?  Such  a  question  leads  to  the  consideration  of 
the  diastolic  mechanism,  which  seems  so  obscure  that  no 
information  whatever  is  to  be  obtained  on  the  subject. 
After  consulting  all  books  within  my  reach,  the  utmost  I 
have  gathered  is  that  the  diastole  is  "an  elastic  rebound," 
in  some  way  connected  with  the  columnce  carnece.  On 
applying  personally  to  certain  authorities  I  was  told  it  was 
"  a  vital  process."  But  so  is  the  whole  of  life.  The  answer 
answered  nothing.  We  know  that  there  is  negative  pres- 
sure in  the  heart  during  diastole,  so  the  old  theory  of  the 
passive  diastole  cannot  stand.  There  are  few,  if  any, 
elastic  connective-tissue  fibres  in  the  ventricle,  whatever 
there  may  be  in  the  septum  or  the  base.  Is  then  the 
diastole  after  all  a  muscular  process  in  the  sense  that 
certain  layers  contract  ?  One  of  our  greatest  authorities 
tells  me  that  there  are  no  reasons  for  supposing  that  this  is 
so.  The  whole  of  the  muscle  layers  seem  adapted  only  for 
the  systole.  It  is  true  that  in  the  systolic  contraction  there 
appear  to  be  torsion  strains.  If  we  adopt  the  view  that 
skeletal  muscles  are  all  systems,  and  that  a  single  muscle 
cannot  exist,  it  is  perhaps  conceivable  that  certain  layers  of 
cardiac  muscle  are  stretched  during  the  systolic  torsion 
contraction,  and  that  the  diastolic  rebound  is  thus  muscular. 
Yet  if  the  view  is  accepted  that  the  mere  lengthening  of  a 
muscle  is  a  positive  and  active  process,  and  a  change  in 
molecular  order,  which  in  some  cases  can  do  work,  this 
somewhat  unlikely  hypothesis  can  be  dispensed  with.  We 
have  merely  to  inquire  why  in  ordinary  cases  a  lengthened 
muscle  is  said  to  be  relaxed,  and  why  the  positive  cardiac 
diastole,  capable  of  producing  a  negative  pressure,  which 


INHIBITION  AND  CARDIAC  VAGUS         109 

according  to  Stefani  is  increased  by  vagal  excitations, 
must  obviously  in  some  sense  be  unrelaxed.  Because  an 
inactive  voluntary  muscle  appears  soft  it  by  no  means 
follows  that  the  lengthened  cells  are  themselves  so.  They 
have  merely  ceased  to  pull  on  their  origin  and  insertion. 
One  fibre  is  not  attached  to  another,  and  in  contraction 
what  we  observe  is  the  general  tensile  strain.  But  in  the 
heart  this  condition  of  loose  muscle  fibre  does  not  exist. 
According  to  Schafer  cardiac  fibres  differ  greatly  from 
voluntary  fibres  :  "  their  striations  are  less  distinct ;  they 
have  no  sarcolemma  ;  they  branch  and  unite  with  neigh- 
bouring fibres,  and  their  nuclei  lie  in  the  centre  of  the 
fibres."  Of  these  differences,  and  here  I  follow  a  brilliant 
suggestion  of  Keith's,  the  really  important  one  is  that 
"  they  branch  and  unite  with  neighbouring  fibres."  If  the 
diastolic  muscle  action  really  does  work,  the  fibres  cannot 
slacken  and  bend  as  in  voluntary  muscle.  They  form  an 
actual  network,  an  interdigitated  or  branched  growth- 
mechanism,  and  must  move  together.  Excitation  is  not 
transmitted  from  fibre  to  fibre  in  skeletal  muscle,  but  it 
does  so  pass  in  cardiac  as  in  smooth  muscle,  and  all  the 
cells  are  excited  in  waves.  It  is  obvious  that  these  millions 
of  short  columnar  cells,  each  with  its  restraining  connections, 
have  to  act  as  a  body,  cell  with  cell,  fibre  with  fibre,  and 
layer  with  layer,  since  the  layers  are  so  much  part  of  each 
other  that  anatomists  differ  as  to  their  number.  In  such  a 
formation  we  have  a  most  remarkable  and  unique  engine, 
very  different  indeed  from  the  fibres  of  voluntary  muscle 
isolated  in  their  sarcolemma,  and  a  rough  illustration  of 
its  mechanism  may  be  afforded  by  comparing  it  with  what 
we  see  in  the  instrument  known  as  a  "  lazy  tongs,"  in  which 
interdependent,  interbranched,  and  hinged  lozenges  are 
shortened  or  lengthened  at  the  user's  will,  while  in  either 


110          WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

state  the  whole  tool  remains  more  or  less  rigid.  On 
receiving  stimulation  in  a  normal  condition  of  the  myo- 
cardium it  is  assuredly  a  case  of  "  all  or  nothing,"  for  a  fibre 
cannot  really  move  by  itself,  although  in  the  pathological 
state  of  fibrillation  there  are  useless  unco-ordinated 
twitches.  Even  if  I  were  qualified  to  enter  into  the  whole 
question  of  muscular  action,  and  most  assuredly  I  am  not,  to 
do  so  would  be  unnecessary  in  this  question  of  the  diastole. 
It  is  sufficient  to  note  that  there  appears  a  fairly  general 
consensus  of  opinion  that  contraction  is  due  to  surface 
action,  and  that,  though  oxygen  is  needed  for  the  energy 
which  restores  potential,  combustion  takes  no  part  in  the 
actual  work  done.  We  are  here,  however,  not  concerned 
with  contraction,  but  with  elongation,  and,  though  it  is  diffi- 
cult to  understand  in  what  way  osmosis  plays  a  part,  it  is 
known  that  in  muscle  action  there  is  movement  of  water 
(Bayliss),  and  that  fatigued  muscle  readily  absorbs  it.  It 
may,  perhaps,  be  said  that  during  contraction  the  water  is 
expelled  into  "  lakes  "  in  the  interstices  of  the  network 
of  cells,  that  during  the  refractory  period  the  oxidative 
processes  which  restore  lactic  acid  take  place,  and  that 
elongation  is  osmotic  expansion.  Thus  contraction  has  an 
outflow  and  elongation  an  inflow,  which,  it  may  be  suggested, 
puts  the  whole  process  on  a  par  with  vaso-constrictor 
and  vaso-dilator  phenomena.  If  this  is  so  it  seems 
perfectly  legitimate  to  regard  the  muscle  cells  as  complex 
sets  of  reversible  hydraulic  presses,  and  to  infer  that, 
though  apparently  less  powerful  than  contraction,  length- 
ening of  muscle  is  a  process  exactly  analogous  to  vaso- 
dilatation.  That  this  process  may  be  increased  by  normal 
stimulation  of  the  vagus  centre  can  hardly  be  doubted, 
and  when  it  is  said  that  the  vaso-dilator  centre  is  not  yet 
discovered,  though  known  to  exist  since  vaso-dilator 


INHIBITION  AND  CARDIAC  VAGUS          111 

nerves  leave  the  cranial  system,  it  seems  as  if  the  actual 
facts  had  been  obscured  by  hasty  theories  of  inhibition, 
and  that  the  portion  of  the  bulb  where  the  vagus  arises  is 
the  actual  centre  which  is  still  looked  for.  We  might,  then, 
assume  that  vagus  action  is  the  same  as  positive  vaso- 
dilatation,  however  much  the  phenomena  are  obscured  in  the 
intestine  or  elsewhere  by  subsidiary  controlling  mechanisms, 
such  as  are  probably  found  in  Auerbach's  plexus,  and 
infer  that  the  whole  action  of  the  heart  is  but  specialized 
vaso-constriction  and  dilatation  by  an  ancestral  motor 
nerve  and  its  later  subordinate  ganglia.  It  might  even 
be  said  that  the  Keith-Flack  node  is  the  Auerbach  plexus 
of  the  heart.  If  this  is  so,  vaso-dilatation  is  everywhere 
caused  by  a  positive  elongation  of  a  muscular  ring,  which 
pushes  outwards  while  held  in  position  by  neighbouring 
tissues  ;  the  cell-lengthening  being  caused  by  osmosis. 
When  we  deal,  not  with  such  small  muscular  systems  as  an 
intestinal  or  arterial  coat,  but  with  a  larger  connected 
mass  of  systems  such  as  cardiac  muscle,  it  is  not  more 
difficult,  or  so  it  seems  to  me,  to  understand  how  a  negative 
pressure  comes  about  in  the  ventricle  than  in  a  pump.  In 
fact,  the  heart  in  more  senses  than  one  is  a  double  pump,  for 
it  not  only  expels  blood  but  draws  it  in.  On  further  experi- 
ment it  may  be  found  that  even  the  auricles  have  a  feeble 
aspiratory  power.  I  find  myself  totally  unable  to  credit 
any  other  view  since  the  heart,  when  removed  from  an 
animal  and  kept  in  a  nutrient  Ringer's  solution,  con- 
tinues to  expand  and  contract  actively.  Very  many 
years  ago  I  was  much  impressed  by  observing  the  heart  of 
a  pelagic  shark,  of  the  genus  Carcharias,  beating  in  the 
open  air  of  a  hot  tropical  day.  I  held  it  in  my  hand,  and 
found  some  pressure  needed  to  keep  it  closed.  On  opening 
my  fingers  it  followed  them,  and  went  on  beating.  I  put 


112          WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

it  down  upon  the  deck,  and  placed  a  coin  upon  it.  The 
heart  continually  raised  and  lowered  the  piece  of  money. 
When  it  was  raised  the  heart  was  widely  expanded  and 
semi-transparent.  As  the  organ  contracted  to  a  mere 
knot  it  lost  its  transparency.  But  the  point  is  that  the 
detached  heart,  even  in  hot,  dry  air,  for  very  many  minutes 
actually  did  work.  I  have  been  assured  that  I  may  have 
mistaken  the  systole  for  the  diastole.  I  do  not  see  how  this 
can  be.  Ignorant  as  I  was  of  physiology,  I  could  still 
observe  the  time  of  its  greatest  expansion  when  it  raised 
the  weight  put  upon  it.  In  spite  of  our  ignorance  of  the 
exact  mechanism  it  seems  impossible  not  to  think  that  there 
are  direct  diastolic  agents,  and  that  it  is  they  which  are 
governed  and  regulated  by  the  vagus.  It  should  come 
into  play,  especially  when  the  heart  is  irritable  and  shows 
a  tendency  to  rely  upon  acceleration  rather  than  the 
"long  pulled- through  stroke"  permitted  by  an  adequate 
diastolic  action.  Such  action  would  tend  to  keep  the  blood- 
pressure  normal,  and  increase  the  coronary  blood-supply. 
It  thus  becomes  easy  to  understand  an  efferent  cranial 
nerve  acting  not  as  a  simple  motor  nerve,  but  as  part  of  the 
autonomic  sympathetic  system,  and  it  puts  vagal  cardiac 
action  into  line  with  its  positive  effects  on  intestinal  move- 
ments. It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  the  physiological 
stimulus  affecting  the  vagus  probably  depends  on  an 
increased  irritability  in  the  medulla,  consequent  on  a 
lessened  blood-supply,  which  reflexly  exerts  its  influence  on 
the  vagal  centre.  The  whole  drama  of  the  heart,  indepen- 
dently of  its  automatic  action,  thus  depends  for  stress  and 
change  on  the  regulating  effects  of  vagus  and  accelerator. 
The  accelerator,  indeed,  seems  a  better  term  than  Gaskell's 
"  augmentor,"  for  its  chief  role  appears  to  be  that  of  over- 
coming the  inertia  of  the  "  pace-maker,"  and  urging  the 


INHIBITION  AND  CARDIAC  VAGUS         113 

heart  to  increased  rapidity  of  action  until  the  vagus  once 
more  controls  it.  So  the  accelerator  replies  to  a  rapid 
stress,  the  vagus  to  a  continued  one.  Tachycardia  as  a 
morbid  condition  is  probably  not  always  due  to  abnormal 
alterations  in  the ' '  pace-maker. ' '  When  the  organism  grows 
weak,  and  the  blood-pressure  falls,  the  cerebral  arteries 
and  coronary  system  can  only  be  kept  going  by  increased 
rapidity,  which  makes  up  for  the  small  volume  of  blood 
sent  into  the  aorta  at  each  ventricular  contraction.  Every 
one  who  has  observed  tired  and  worried  workers,  forced  to 
continue  by  urgent  stimuli,  has  seen  them  go  through  such 
stages.  A  man  who  works  under  pressure  with  a  shovel 
increases  his  rapidity  and  decreases  his  load.  Seamen 
tend  under  similar  circumstances  to  take  short  ineffective 
pulls  on  the  gear  at  which  they  are  hauling,  and  are  apt 
to  do  it  in  silence  without  the  "  pace-maker  "  of  a  rhythmic 
song.  I  may  be  exposing  myself  to  the  ridicule  of  the 
unobservant  if  I  liken  to  vagus  action  the  mate's  voice 
urging  them  to  use  their  strength  more  rhythmically  and 
conservatively.  But  every  worker  who  has  toiled  under 
stress  will  be  able  to  recall  analogies  in  his  own  experience 
which  strengthen  such  an  illustration. 

It  appears,  then,  as  if  the  vagus  and  accelerator  fibres 
had  no  function  of  very  great  importance  in  health,  rest,  and 
easy  normal  conditions,  although  without  doubt  they  make 
minor  corrections  in  the  cardiac  mechanism  at  all  times. 
The  necessity  of  explaining  "  inhibition  "  in  the  heart  thus 
seems  only  to  exist  in  the  laboratory,  in  the  casualty 
ward,  or  on  the  operating  table.  Then  the  conditions  are 
pathological ;  the  cases  are  cases  of  "shock,"  if  shock  is 
disruption  of  united  organic  action  with  concomitant  effects 
upon  the  organs  by  which  stability  is  assured.  Such  an 
explanation  seems  in  accord  with  what  is  known  of  the 


114         WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

vaso-motor  system  as  it  responds  reflexly  to  the  needs  of 
the  somatic  cells,  or  to  emotions  conditioned  by  adrenalin 
and  other  glandular  products.  But  the  chief  point  is  that 
there  is  no  real  contradiction  in  such  a  view  between  the 
cardiac  and  intestinal  vagus  action.  Both  tend  to  increase 
the  working  power  of  the  organ  they  control.  Moreover, 
if  these  arguments  have  any  weight,  such  is  assuredly 
increased  by  the  fact  that  the  phenomena  accompanying 
the  therapeutic  action  of  digitalis  no  longer  contradict  vagus 
action,  but  show  that  the  drug  actually  assists  it  to  work 
when  normal  control  breaks  down  and  the  degenerate 
heart  is  under  the  influence  of  the  accelerators,  or  a  flurried 
irregular  stimulus  of  the  pace-maker,  with  concomitant 
irregular  muscle  fibre  discharges,  such  as  are  seen  in 
auricular  fibrillation.  It  is  true  that  pharmacologists  assert 
that  the  action  of  digitalis  differs  from  vagus  influence. 
This  is  only  natural  since  they  are  apt  to  bolt  their  physio- 
logy whole,  as  it  is  given  them  by  specialists  in  that 
science.  So  indeed  the  physiologist  himself,  with  regard  to 
drug  action,  leans  with  too  much  faith  on  the  pharmacologist. 
As  was  once  remarked  to  me  by  an  eminent  professor, 
there  is  scarcely  a  drug  known  to  medicine  which  would 
not  take  a  lifetime  to  study  properly.  Certainly  clinicians 
would  agree.  Cushny  says  that  the  inhibitory  action  of  the 
vagus  tends  to  render  tone  less  complete,  and  to  produce 
weaker  contractions  than  digitalis.  This  is  in  accordance 
with  orthodox  opinion.  But  the  evidence  is  not  convincing. 
What  is  of  weight  is  the  result  of  the  experiments  with  this 
particular  cardiac  drug.  Even  if  ancient  accepted  experi- 
ments, drawn  from  the  text-books  or  the  practice  of  the 
physiological  laboratories,  are  repeated,  they  are  of  no 
more  importance  than  the  original  ones  founded,  as  I  have 
endeavoured  to  show,  on  unphysiological  lines.  To  repeat, 


INHIBITION  AND  CARDIAC  VAGUS         115 

and  keep  on  repeating,  that  a  normal  stimulus  can  have  a 
direct  weakening  effect  does  not  convince  those  desirous 
of  examining  the  problem  afresh.  It  may  be  recalled, 
perhaps,  not  without  advantage,  that  many  single  experi- 
ments, or  even  dicta  of  authoritative  ancient  physicians, 
are  as  duly  repeated  from  one  text-book  to  another  as 
wrong  definitions  in  some  big  dictionary  are  copied  in  its 
successors.  In  any  case  the  physiologists  and  pharma- 
cologists speak  not  as  physicians,  most  of  whom,  I  imagine, 
are  under  the  impression  that  digitalis  in  therapeutic  doses 
aids  vagus  action,  slows  the  pulse,  obtains  a  better  diastole 
directly,  and  allows  the  heart  pause  sufficient  time  to  gather 
up  its  energy  and  increase  its  general  tone  and  its  hasmic 
output  with  relief  to  all  the  symptoms  which  called  for  its 
assistance.  When  the  heart  has  been  thus  helped  the 
accelerator  is  no  longer  irritated  into  increasing  the  heart- 
rate,  the  pace-maker  is  restored  to  its  normal  action, 
and  once  more  dominates  the  irregular  discharges  of  the 
degenerate  myocardium.  To  say,  as  the  students  of  drugs 
say,  that  the  symptoms  in  the  second,  or  poisonous,  stage 
of  digitalis  are  like  vagus  action,  and  that  cardiac  work  is 
therefore  less  well  done,  is  to  mix  true  observations  with 
false.  At  the  least  it  seems  to  imply  that  digitalis  then 
acts  through  and  on  the  vagus  nerve,  whereas  its  thera- 
peutic action  suggests  that  what  it  does  is  to  increase  the 
working  capacity  of  the  cardiac  muscle  by  modifying  its 
irritability  and  allowing  it  time  to  recuperate,  thereby 
permitting  normal  vagus  action  to  continue.  It  thus 
assists  the  complex  reversible  reactions  which  enable 
muscle  to  work  at  all.  If  larger  doses  stop  action  directly, 
or  prevent  the  muscle  cells  from  being  supplied  with 
necessary  proteins,  or  with  fuel,  it  is  in  such  cases  that  the 
word  "  inhibition "  seems  truly  applicable,  for  poisonous 


116         WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

doses  of   digitalis  no  doubt  slow   or  stop  recuperative 
cardiac  processes  as  well  as  many  others. 

In  such  conceptions  there  is  no  mystery,  and  no  neces- 
sity for  the  hypothesis  that  the  vagus,  acting  as  a  trigger, 
releases  some  particular  compound  which  weakens  the 
heart.  If  in  1906  Shenington  used  the  expression  "in- 
hibition, whatever  that  essentially  may  be,"  it  is  far  more 
likely  that  its  nature  will  be  discovered  by  resort  to  what 
we  know  already,  than  to  such  unevolutionary  notions  of 
"weakening."  It  seems  that  H.  O.  Thomas,  who  was  not 
only  interested  in  bone  surgery,  came  to  the  conclusion 
that  "inhibition  is  the  suspension  of  life,  not  the  action  of 
special  nerves."  That  he  meant  by  the  "suspension  of 
life  "  some  reflexly  caused  cessation  of  action  is  literally 
certain.  He  actually  writes  in  1883 :  "In  proof  that 
mechanical  irritation  of  this  nerve  (vagus)  induces  a  con- 
dition of  shock,  we  have  the  accepted  fact  that  atropine 
protects  the  nerve  from  the  shock  consequent  on  mechanical 
disturbance.  I  have  not  yet  met  with  any  evidence  which 
proves  the  existence  of  any  inhibiting  nerve  fibres  in  this  or 
any  other  nerve."  In  these  views  it  seems,  according  to 
Rushbrooke,  that  Thomas  followed  Joseph  Lister,  also  of 
Liverpool,  who  wrote  on  the  subject  in  1859.  Although 
most,  if  not  all,  modern  physiologists  are  certain  that 
inhibition  exists,  and  that  it  is  centrally  caused,  it  seems 
that  the  doctrine  cannot  be  looked  on  as  established.  If 
physiology  is  to  make  secure  its  final  "  passage  to  physics," 
which  physiologists,  who  do  not  resort  to  vitalism,  are 
working  for,  some  means  must  surely  be  found  to  reconcile 
the  contradictions  in  cardiac  and  intestinal  vagal  action. 
Perhaps  some  of  the  dissatisfaction  with  current  theory  can 
be  obviated  by  means  of  a  different  terminology,  in  which 
the  "lessened  action"  of  reciprocal  innervation,  that  seen 


INHIBITION  AND  CARDIAC  VAGUS         117 

in  the  preliminary  pauses  of  intestinal  activity,  and  the 
peculiar  phenomena  observed  in  the  heart,  are  not  classed 
together  under  one  word  of  very  doubtful  connotations. 

It  is,  of  course,  stated,  perhaps  almost  with  violence, 
that  inhibition  and  inhibitory  nerves  exist,  that  the  evi- 
dence for  them  is  overwhelming.  Certainly  the  observa- 
tions show  that  action  ceases  at  times  very  suddenly. 
Activity  is  cut  short,  and  a  muscle  with  contrary  action 
comes  into  play.  Bell's  "  muscular  sense "  consisted,  I 
take  it,  not  only  in  central  messages,  but  in  an  infinite 
series  of  reflexes.  So  with  Duchenne's  "  articular  sense," 
the  loss  of  which,  in  his  opinion,  gave  rise  to  locomotor 
ataxia.  It  is  barely  conceivable  that  the  paths  of  all 
such  delicate  reflexes  are  known.  Since  the  nerve  cells 
are  not  so  distantly  related  to  muscle  cells,  which  are 
peculiarly  conductive,  it  can  be  imagined  that  many 
muscular  reflexes  occur  even  without  nerves,  while  few 
neurologists,  I  imagine,  will  be  ready  to  declare  that  the 
whole  nervous  anatomy  of  the  body  is  now  and  for 
ever  mapped  out.  These  fields  should  be  explored  before 
resorting  to  a  rough-and-ready  statement  of  central  "  in- 
hibition "  in  every  case  of  suddenly  arrested  action.  Such 
arrests  take  place  under  conscious,  if  instinctively  recog- 
nized, stimuli ;  but  since  the  constant  course  of  evolution  is 
devolution  and  "  short-circuiting,"  following  the  laws  of 
energetics,  the  naturally  simpler  view  should  be  taken. 
If  so,  in  every  case  of  inhibition  some  short-circuiting  reflex 
should  be  looked  for,  if  the  mere  cessation  of  afferent  sensory 
messages  will  not  account  for  the  phenomena.  It  seems 
as  if  inhibition  had  become  a  physiological  Mesopotamia — a 
very  comforting  word.  Certainly  mystery  after  mystery  has 
been  crammed  into  it,  and  once  established  as  "  explana- 
tion "  the  endeavour  is  to  explain  it,  with  what  results  the 


118          WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

text-books  show.  In  things  "psychological "  there  are 
few  physiologists  who  have  not  welcomed  Pavlov's  "  condi- 
tioned reflexes."  By  their  considered  use  mysterious  and 
misleading  words,  with  a  hundred  different  meanings,  may 
be  avoided.  "  Consciousness  "  itself,  that  Pandora's  box  of 
scientific,  no  less  than  metaphysical,  disaster,  at  last  gives 
way,  and  discloses  itself  as  reflex  adaptational  machinery. 
It  is  time  that  the  word  inhibition  should  yield  to  the 
same  key,  for  positive  reflexes,  however  conditioned  and 
complex,  which  should  be  capable  of  resolution  into 
physical  reactions,  obviously  rule  living  action  of  all 
kinds.  Certainly  in  physiology  we  have  not  yet  reached 
ultimate  postulates  or  axioms,  and  no  hypothesis  should 
include  definite  contradictions,  especially  when  we  have 
to  say  "  whatever  it  essentially  may  be." 

In  looking  for  explanation  the  human  "  mind  "  searches 
for  rest :  the  brain  seeks  automatically  for  the  shorter  paths 
of  cerebral  activity  that  we  call  generalizations.  There  is 
something  profoundly  satisfying  in  such  processes,  and  they 
can  certainly  be  ranged  under  the  laws  of  energetics.  The 
brain  has  less  work  to  do,  and  a  complex  series  of  opening 
and  closing  synapses  is  freed  from  continual  irritation. 
The  flood  of  "  thought,"  or  energy,  has  found  a  short  direct 
channel,  while  all  other  possible  paths  are  cut  out.  They 
are,  in  fact,  "inhibited";  synapses  close;  energy  does 
not  act  that  way.  Such  a  view  by  no  means  implies  an 
acceptance  of  M'Dougall's  "  drainage  "  theory  of  inhibition, 
although  something  can  be  said  for  it.  All  it  means  is  that 
there  is  substituted  action.  It  is  probably  so  in  every  case 
of  inhibition.  On  a  previous  page  I  sought  for  some  homely 
illustrations  and  analogies  for  cardiac  vagal  action.  These 
can  also  be  found  for  the  phenomena  in  which  lessened 
action  takes  place  in  other  muscles  than  those  of  the  heart. 


INHIBITION  AND  CARDIAC  VAGUS         119 

There  are  "  organisms  "  of  the  social  kind  in  continuous 
activity,  with  no  complete  pause,  not  even  such  a  pause 
as  that  of  the  heart.  Such  an  organism  is  a  ship  at  sea. 
When  one  watch  comes  on  deck  the  other  goes  off.  From 
the  time  of  leaving  one  port  to  reaching  another  this  con- 
tinues. There  is  no  moment  at  which  part  of  the  crew  is 
not  in  "  tone,"  ready  for  action,  or  in  actual  work.  A  ship 
has  been  evolved  ;  it  has  grown  up,  it  has  its  reactions, 
which  we  call  sea  customs.  Although  the  two  "  watches  " 
or  parts  of  the  crew  are  separate,  and  usually  possessed  of  a 
certain  jealousy  or  "  hostility  "  to  each  other,  they  are  con- 
nected by  innumerable  bonds  of  habit  and  custom.  When 
one  goes  on  deck  in  fine  weather  the  other  is  "  inhibited." 
Does  such  inhibition  arise  centrally  ?  Although  it  may  do 
so  in  some  cases  it  is  mostly  a  pure  reflex  phenomenon. 
One  activity  replaces  the  other  automatically.  It  seems 
to  me  that  such  a  case  supplies  more  than  a  hint  for  what  is 
known  as  "  reciprocal  innervation."  When  two  muscles 
have  been  evolved  together,  fulfilling  opposite  functions, 
it  is  impossible  not  to  imagine  definite  relations  and  con- 
nections between  them.  The  very  activity  of  one  implies 
the  inactivity  of  the  other.  And  the  actions  of  decerebrate 
animals  prove  it.  That  the  central  system  in  a  ship  ensures 
denote  direction  of  the  whole  ship  we  know,  but  in  the  lower 
functions  excitations  and  inhibitions  proceed  automatically, 
and  it  is  of  physiological  interest  to  note  that  overmuch 
central  interference  with  such  functions  produces  symptoms 
which  rapidly  tend  to  become  pathological.  It  is  well 
understood  at  sea  that  "  central "  interference  is  only 
justifiable  in  abnormal  conditions.  Thus  so  long  as  the 
crew  function  normally  no  officer  enters  the  fo'c'sle  except 
on  stated  occasions  of  inspection.  If  he  did  it  would 
be  greatly  resented.  Perpetual  unevolutionary  stimuli 


120          WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

produce  mutinies  at  sea,  revolutions  and  anarchy  on 
shore. 

Another  illustration  of  real "  inhibition  "  will  be  familiar 
to  all  physicians  and  surgeons.  A  nervous  patient  visits, 
say,  a  urologist,  and  finds  that  his  cystic  reflexes  are  tem- 
porarily paralysed.  Their  action  is  partly  reflex,  partly 
"  volitional,"  or  under  central  control.  The  sphincter  and 
cystic  muscles  are  antagonistic.  The  surgeon  observes  the 
condition  of  the  patient  and,  whether  he  knows  it  or  not, 
a  little  thought  must  make  him  aware  that  the  patient's 
whole  field  of  reactive  consciousness  is  occupied  by  a  con- 
viction of  inability.  To  encourage  him  vocally  would  be 
worse  than  useless,  since  the  less  the  patient  thinks  the 
better.  So  he  turns  his  back,  which  is  already  a  help,  and 
sets  a  tap  running.  Relieved  from  the  reactions  caused 
by  observation,  the  patient's  volitional  tracts  are  freed  while 
the  running  water  sets  up  a  series  of  conditioned  reflexes 
which  relax  the  sphincter  and  permit  the  cystic  muscles  to 
act.  So  between  stimulus  and  inhibition  there  is  a  long 
series  of  substituted  actions.  Such  a  conclusion  is  greatly 
reinforced  by  the  possible  opposite  effect  of  the  surgeon's 
action.  If  the  patient  knows  the  trick  that  is  being  played 
upon  him  there  may  be  increased  inhibition,  which  means 
that  his  energy  is  turned  into  directions  which  do  not  help, 
but  actually  hinder,  the  operation  desired.  In  every  case 
it  will  be  found  that  substituted  action  takes  place,  and  that 
no  inhibition  is  direct. 

It  will  probably  be  said  that  such  simple  illustrations 
have  no  real  relevance  to  such  an  obscure  subject  as 
inhibition.  Whether  this  is  true  or  not  the  fact  remains 
that  this  paper  is  only  meant  to  be  suggestively  critical  of 
views  which  do  nc  seem  on  the  face  of  them  to  be  sound. 
Students,  even  the  acutest,  brought  up  in  the  light,  or 


INHIBITION  AND  CARDIAC  VAGUS         121 

shadow,  of  certain  doctrines,  are  naturally  apt  to  find  on 
every  hand  confirmation  of  the  accepted.  This  is  not  so 
only  in  theology.  It  is  a  common  human  weakness.  The 
justification  of  criticism  lies  in  the  acknowledged  con- 
fusion of  the  subject,  due,  almost  certainly,  to  inadequate 
definitions  and  the  confounding  of  several  subjects  under 
a  heading  of  the  very  dimmest  connotation.  It  seems  that 
we  cannot  use  the  word  rightfully  even  as  a  temporary 
"  explanation  "  of  vagal  action,  although  we  may  employ 
it  properly  in  the  interruption  of  conditioned  reflexes  where 
we  get  cases  of  substituted  action  which  are  as  clearly 
seen  on  examination  as  the  surprising  physical  results 
of  apomorphine  on  a  hystoidal  patient.  To  believe  that 
stimulation,  or  excitation  of  a  nerve,  dissipates  energy,  for 
that  is  what  weakening  means,  is  impossible.  It  has  been 
said  that  the  process  is  no  more  than  the  interruption  of 
the  storing  of  energy.  How  this  can  occur  physiologically 
is  hard  to  see.  It  is  a  mere  assumption,  and  in  any  case 
it  would  not  be  "  weakening."  Regulation  is  not  done  by 
enfeeblement  in  any  class  of  organism  except  in  patho- 
logical states.  That  the  heart  is  always  being  regulated 
even  in  easy  unstressed  conditions  is  obvious.  But  I  have 
discovered  that  it  is  more  regulated  than  is  generally 
known.  Judging  from  cardiograms  of  all  known  kinds  it 
would  be  said  that  healthy  heart-beats  were  of  equal  force. 
This  may  be  so  practically,  but  it  is  not  so  actually.  By 
means  of  a  liquid  column  in  a  small  tube,  actuated  directly 
from  the  radial  artery,  and  thrown  upon  a  screen  with  a 
magnification  of  the  moving  liquid  until  it  is,  say,  ten  feet 
long,  it  can  be  seen  that  few  successive  beats  are  equal,  and 
that  the  dicrotic  notch,  whether  great  or  small,  is  perpetu- 
ally varying.  All  muscle  fibres  do  not  do  equal  work  at 
all  times.  Interdependence  and  regulation  are  the  ruling 


122          WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

factors  of  all  functions,  and  we  may  expect  them  in  every 
nervous  mechanism.  What  occurs  abnormally  is  often  the 
roughest  guide  to  the  normal.  But,  if  it  is  taken  as  normal, 
physiology  pays  the  penalty  in  confusion,  even  though  it 
should  always  regard  pathology  as  its  nearest  relative— an 
erring  sister. 

When  it  is  remembered  that  no  science  can  explain 
itself,  and  that  knowledge  is  a  patterned  web  woven  out  of 
all  the  sciences,  it  also  seems  that  biology,  and  the  whole 
course  of  evolution,  might  be  more  frequently  referred  to  in 
physiological  work  than  is  usual.  It  was  suggested  above 
that  reciprocal  innervation  may  thus  be  looked  on  as  a 
biological  evolutionary  process,  a  case  in  which  muscles 
grew  up  together  as  interdependent  organs  in  which  alter- 
nate actions,  however  now  regulated,  were  a  sine  qua  non 
of  their  existence.  Knowing  as  we  do  the  moulding 
effects  of  stresses  on  bone,  and  the  facts  that  the  sclero- 
blasts  of  sponges  settle  and  work  about  non-vibrating 
points,  biology  and  physics  may  work  together  even  in 
such  problems,  and  suggest  that  quasi-nervous  effects  may 
be  produced  in  muscle,  not  only  by  alternate  stretching  and 
contraction,  but  also  by  stresses  communicated  through 
and  by  bone  and  other  cells.  Thus,  quite  independent  of 
so-called  inhibitory  fibres,  a  sudden  powerful  contraction 
of  one  muscle  might  throw  another  out  of  action  by  giving 
such  intensely  sensitive  cells  a  signal  of  positive  relaxation. 
It  is  not  so  long  ago  that  the  rhythmic  action  of  opposed 
muscles  was  supposed  to  be  due  to  direct  innervation,  not 
to  alternate  reflex  contraction  and  stretching.  It  seems  at 
times  as  if  more  was  attributed  to  nervous  action  than  is 
actually  due  to  it. 

It  has  been  objected  to  some  of  these  views  that 
excitation  and  inhibition  are  simple  concepts,  even  if  we 


INHIBITION  AND  CARDIAC  VAGUS          123 

say  with  Sherrington,  "  whatever  they  essentially  may  be," 
and  that  they  are  opposed  just  as  warming  and  cooling  may 
be.  But  what  happens  as  regards  energy  when  water 
cools  is  known,  as  it  is  in  the  rise  and  fall  of  electric 
potential.  What  happens  to  muscle  energy  in  "  inhibition  " 
we  do  not  know,  if  the  usual  views  of  cardiac  weakening 
and  the  depressing  functions  of  the  vagus  are  held.  A 
complex  chemical  process  at  the  end-plate  must  be  posited, 
and  of  that  there  seems  no  evidence.  To  call  in  the  nervous 
system  to  produce  weakening  toxins  or  the  like,  even  by 
intensifying  cellular  catabolism,  appears  too  great  an 
assumption  to  make  when  there  is  a  much  simpler  ex- 
planation at  hand.  Many  of  the  cardiograms  shown  as 
proofs  of  cardiac  inhibition  seem  wrongly  interpreted.  It 
is,  perhaps,  not  too  presumptuous  to  say  that  their  inter- 
pretation is  an  extremely  difficult  art,  and  that  even  among 
the  most  expert  cardiologists  there  are  at  times  great 
differences  in  opinion.  Having  worked  for  months  on  the 
subject  with  a  disciple  of  our  greatest  cardiologist  I  shall, 
perhaps,  be  pardoned  for  suggesting  that  the  most  eminent 
physiologists  may  err  in  such  a  special  branch  of  learning. 
I  have  seen  cardiograms  showing  the  "  weakening  "  of  the 
heart  in  which  the  amplitude  of  the  beats  was  distinctly 
increased,  and  the  interval  between  them  lengthened  when 
the  theory  of  inhibition  required  pathological  slowing  and 
decrease  of  amplitude.  Such  results  undoubtedly  occur  in 
extreme  vagal  stimulation ;  but  this  is  only  what  would 
be  expected  on  the  views  expressed  in  this  place.  But  to 
get  better  systoles  and  diastoles  is  not  weakening.  It  is 
also  said  that  under  vagal  stimulation  the  conducting  power 
of  the  Bundle  of  His  is  "  impaired."  The  evidence  of  this  is 
merely  that  the  heart  is  generally  slower.  Such  a  state- 
ment is  a  mere  re-statement  of  an  assertion.  That  the 


124          WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

heart  is  sometimes  unexcitable  by  a  direct  stimulus  when 
under  vagal  stimulation  is  just  what  would  be  expected 
if  the  vagus  is  a  controller  and  regulator  until  it  conveys  a 
shock.  So  to  say  that  the  accelerator  improves  conduction 
means  no  more  than  to  say  the  whole  heart  is  stimulated. 
It  is,  again,  a  mere  re-statement  of  an  observation. 
The  truth  seems  to  be  that  the  accepted  doctrine  of  the 
heart  is  full  of  verbal  logical  fallacies.  To  declare  that 
"  inhibition  "  causes  lessened  action  is  only  to  say  that 
lessened  action  occurs  because  it  is  somehow  not  so  strong 
in  action  as  it  was.  We  observe  it,  but  to  attribute  it  to 
"  inhibition  "  is  to  repeat  the  error  of  the  bacteriologists 
who  attribute  agglutinations  to  mystic  "  agglutinins,"  and 
make  an  observation  into  a  cause.  If  it  is  said  that  by 
inhibition  a  cause  is  not  meant,  but  that  the  word  enables 
us  to  link  phenomena  together,  the  question  at  once  arises 
whether  they  are  not  falsely  linked.  We  cannot  truly 
oppose  it  to  excitation,  which  after  all  is  one  of  the  purest 
examples  of  a  "  cause  "  in  physiology,  for,  whether  its 
nature  is  understood  or  not,  we  can  bring  an  infinite  number 
of  legitimate  analogies  to  illustrate  it.  And,  biologically,  it 
is  seen  that  in  any  organism  real  inhibition  is  effected  by 
means  of  secretions  which  are  very  definite  agents.  Accord- 
ing to  P.  F.  Herring,  feeding  rats  with  thyroid  causes  not 
only  forced  positive  changes,  such  as  a  three-fold  enlarge- 
ment of  the  heart,  and  doubled  weight  of  adrenals,  but 
negative  ones  such  as  a  smaller  thyroid.  The  gland  is 
not  needed,  is  thrown  out  of  action,  and  "  inhibited  "  by 
definite  loss  of  function.  No  analogies  can  help  out  "  inhi- 
bition "if  in  all  cessations  or  stoppages  or  weakening  of 
action  we  find  substituted  processes  of  direct  action  by 
definite  agents.  When  it  is  said,  as  has  been  said  to  me, 
that  a  pure  analogy  of  true  inhibition  is  when  a  labourer 


INHIBITION  AND  CARDIAC  VAGUS          125 

drops  his  tools  on  hearing  the  dinner-bell,  it  may  be  answered 
that  here  we  have  a  direct  conditioned  reflex  over- 
coming excitation  which  has  been  slackened  in  effect  by 
real  exhaustion  of  energy.  A  true  analogy  for  such 
"  inhibitions "  as  are  seen  in  intestinal  action,  even 
though  little  will  be  known  of  that  until  the  Auerbach 
and  Meissner  plexuses  are  fully  understood,  is  a 
labourer  pausing,  taking  in  oxygen,  and  gathering  up 
energy  for  a  big  task.  For  on  stimulating  the  intestinal 
vagus  the  graphs  show  a  preliminary  slowing,  and  then 
ampler,  more  effective  movements. 

That  the  inhibition  theory  is  held  firmly,  even  obstin- 
ately, is  no  proof  of  its  truth.  Phlogiston  was  satisfactory 
to  many,  and  so  apparently  was  "  bad  air  "  as  a  cause  of 
malaria.  And  yet  Varro l  in  36  B.C.  actually  attributed  the 
disease  to  minute  animals.  Columella  even  spoke  of 
mosquitoes  as  "armed  with  dangerous  stings,"  animalia 
infestis  aculeis  armata.  It  was  necessary  to  wait  nearly 
two  thousand  years  to  get  this  verified  by  Ross  and 
Manson.  It  may  be  recollected  that  hundreds  of  years 
ago  an  English  physician  was  practically  ruined  by 
attributing  many  diseases  to  invisibly  small  living  agents. 
Humoralists  and  solidists  would  be  alike  against  him. 
Von  Uexkiill  said  that  the  object  of  science  was  not 
truth  but  order,  not  having  reached  the  pragmatic  con- 
ception that  real  order  is  truth;  but  it  does  not  seem 
that  the  theories  of  inhibition  have  provided  either. 

REFERENCES. 

BAYLISS,  W.  M. — (i)  "Principles  of  General  Physiology,"  1915  ; 
(2)  "  Cardiac  Vagus,"  Brit.  Med.  Journ.,  London,  Sept.  28, 
1918. 

1  See  Appendix  C,  "  Varro." 


126          WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

BELL,  CHARLES.—"  The  Hand,"  1883. 

COLUMELLA. — Vol.  i.  p.  5. 

CUSHNY,  A.  R. — "Text-Book  of  Pharmacology." 

DUCHENNE,  G.  B.  A. — "Physiologic  des  Mouvements,"  1867. 

HERRING,  P.  F. — "  Thyroid  Feeding  of  Rats,"  Quar.  Jonrn. 
Exp.  Physiol.,  London,  1917,  vol.  xi. 

LISTER,  JOSEPH. — Proc.  Royal  Soc.,  1859,  pp.  367-80. 

LUCIANI,  L. — "  Human  Physiology,"  1911. 

M'DoucALL,  W. — "Physiological  Psychology." 

MACKENZIE,  Sir  J. — "Diagnosis  and  Treatment  of  Heart  Affec- 
tions," 1916. 

ROBERTS,  MORLEY. — "  The  Function  of  the  Cardiac  Vagus," 
Brit.  Med.  Journ.,  London,  Sept.  14,  1918. 

SCHAFER,  E.  A. — "  Essentials  of  Histology." 

STEFANI. — v.  Luciani,  supra,  "  Mechanism  of  the  Heart." 

THOMAS,  H.  O.— "Nerve  Inhibition,"  1883. 

VARRO,  MARCUS  TERENTIUS,  116-27  B.C. — "  De  Re  Rustica," 
Book  I.  cap.  xii. 

WEBER,  E. — "  Muskelbewegung,"  1846. 

WILSON,  R.  M.  M'NAIR. — "Tachycardia,"  Brit.  Med.  Journ., 
London,  Jan.  17,  1920. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  THEORY  OF  IMMUNITY1 

WHEN  the  late  Sir  William  Osier  jested  at  the  expense 
of  the  new  school  of  theorizing  biologists  who 
strive  to  perpetuate  in  peculiar  neologisms  highly  doubtful 
microscopic  observations,  he  drew  a  caricature  of  their 
specialized  language,  which  had  considerable  merit.  But 
while  he  fought  against  specialism  run  mad  hi  verbal 
constructions,  which  at  once  simulate  knowledge  and 
obscure  it,  he  might  just  as  well  have  taken  his  examples 
from  the  armoury  of  certain  bacteriologists.  If,  in  the 
phenomena  of  mitosis,  "  the  idiosphaerosome  differentiates 
into  an  idiocrytosome  and  an  idiocalyptosome,  both 
surrounded  by  the  idiosphserotheca,"  such  a  passage  is 
assuredly  not  more  curious  to  observe  than  many  which 
cram  a  hundred  Greek  and  Latin  derivatives  and  hybrids 
into  a  bacteriological  "  explanation."  Although  any 
science  seems  liable  to  fall  into  the  practical  fallacy  of 
thinking  a  thing  can  be  explained  without  reference  or 
relation  to  others,  bacteriology  appears  least  immune  to 
this  logical  disorder  of  thought.  But  since  explanation 
consists  in  the  classification  of  observations  with  regard 

1  (For  abstract  of  this  paper,  and  for  Professor  Benjamin  Moore's 
comments,  see  British  Medical  Journal,  December  8,  1917,  and  December 
22,  1917.) 

137 


128  WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

to  more  widely  operating  causes,  or,  as  Mach  says,  in 
showing  that  any  given  phenomenon  is  the  unequivocal 
function  of  its  variables,  what  has  to  be  demonstrated  is 
that  those  variables  belong  to  recognized  classes  of  factors. 
We  cannot  explain  life  by  saying  that  it  is  living,  or  a 
bacteriologist  by  asserting  that  he  is  bacteriological. 

It  is  due  to  such  habits  of  thought,  which  now  appear 
to  be  confirmed,  that  there  are  fewer  subjects  coming  under 
the  heads  of  general  physiology  and  biochemistry  in  a 
greater  state  of  confusion  than  "  immunity."  This  result 
may,  perhaps,  be  due  to  a  false  belief  in  the  profundity 
of  the  Teutonic  mind  which,  as  Benjamin  Moore  pointed 
out,  when  commenting  on  an  original  communication  of 
mine  in  the  British  Medical  Journal,  had  seized  upon 
French  work,  and  fogged  it  in  its  best  later  manner. 
It  is  indeed  to  Weismann  and  Ehrlich  that  the 
worst  results  can  be  directly  attributed,  for  just  as  the 
biologist  explained  heredity  by  saying  that  it  happened 
owing  to  the  nature  of  the  organism,  that  is,  to  its  ids, 
determinants,  and  biophors,  and  the  like,  so  Ehrlich  in  his 
side-chain  theory  invented  a  marvellous  verbal  machinery 
of  immunization,  every  word  of  which  contained  a  "  cir- 
culus  in  definiendo."  To  the  practical  English  worker, 
who  usually  distrusts  the  theoretic  intellect,  as  if  a  general 
idea  were  a  proof  of  original  sin  unless  it  comes  to  him  from 
abroad,  this  scheme  was  a  godsend.  It  appeared  to  save 
thought,  and  instead  of  examining  it  critically  he  has 
patched  it  up  with  new  words  as  they  seemed  to  be  wanted, 
just  as  the  Ptolemaic  astronomy  added  eccentric  to 
eccentric  and  epicycle  to  epicycle  in  order  to  represent 
the  planetary  motions.  And  yet  the  whole  theory  is 
obviously  false.  To  this  every  modern  physiologist  would 
subscribe,  seeing  that  it  depends  for  its  validity  on  the 


THE  THEORY  OF  IMMUNITY  129 

supposition  that  life  itself  is  the  result  of  giant  molecules. 
It  is,  of  course,  wrong  to  infer  that  particular  statements 
are  not  true  if  rightly  interpreted.  "Antigens"  certainly 
produce  specific  "  antibodies  "  as  definite  responses  to  the 
chemical  nature  of  the  "  antigen  "  ;  but  there  is  no  reason 
why  this  should  not  have  been  expressed  in  terms  imply- 
ing that  any  foreign  or  hostile  elements  introduced  into  an 
organism  tended  to  produce  definite  reactions  of  a  pro- 
tective nature.  To  invent  or  to  lead  to  the  invention  of  a 
jargon  containing  such  words  as  haptophore,  ergophore, 
complementophilogen,  amboceptors,  agglutinins,  precipi- 
tins,  bacteriolysins,  opsonins,  syntoxoid,  and  so  on,  which 
again  bred  other  equally  futile  words  of  the  same  kind, 
was  but  to  stultify  real  explanation,  and  to  cloud  percep- 
tion of  the  actual  facts.  When  all  this  was  hung  upon  the 
giant  molecule,  a  mere  guess  of  Verworn's,  the  structure 
naturally  enough  came  to  the  ground.  But,  though  the 
whole  theory  of  side-chains,  except  so  far  as  they  are 
mere  chemical  phenomena,  has  been  discredited,  there  are 
yet  able  bacteriologists  who  continue  to  teach  it  as  if  Ehrlich 
were  accepted  gospel.  On  my  inquiring  why  they  did  so, 
when  they  knew  that  the  theory  was  no  longer  held  by  any 
physiologist,  two  or  three  well-known  men  replied  that  it 
was  useful  to  students  as  a  framework  on  which  to  hang 
facts.  To  this  it  might  be  objected  that,  though  a  hat-rack 
is  useful  to  hang  hats  on,  yet  it  is  not  the  place  to  hang 
hundredweights,  and  that  when  the  hat-rack  has  the 
additional  disadvantage  of  being  an  imaginary  one,  there 
will  be  more  than  common  difficulties  in  the  way  of  useful 
arrangement.  A  compound  may,  perhaps,  be  cleared  of 
cobras  by  a  mongoose ;  but  no  competent  zoologist  will 
employ  the  "  imaginary  mongoose  "  of  fable  at  the  task. 
To  teach  what  is  not  true  merely  as  mnemonics  is  to 
9 


130          WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

ignore  the  truth  that  any  fact  falsely  classified  is  not  only  a 
danger  in  practice  but  leads  to  false  views  with  regard  to 
other  sciences,  to  say  nothing  of  the  distrust  of  the  teacher 
evoked  in  the  intelligent  student  who  does  not  swallow 
what  is  offered  to  him  without  producing  an  "  anti- 
body "  to  the  professional  "  antigen."  For  such  a  student 
may  have  acquired  some  smattering  of  colloids,  and  have 
actually  begun  to  see,  as  Moore  wrote,  that  the  pioneer 
work  of  the  French  "had  been  burdened  with  the  intoler- 
able weight  of  a  useless  philosophy  of  jangling  terms  for 
a  type  of  reaction  well  known  in  colloidal  chemistry." 
It  will  probably  be  found  that  a  dictionary  containing  the 
common  terms  of  chemistry  and  biochemistry  is  fully 
sufficient  for  the  reactions  even  of  complicated  colloids. 
An  obscure  reaction  is  not  explained  by  attributing  it  to  an 
imaginary  substance  with  the  very  "qualities  which  are  the 
subject  of  investigation.  To  invent  one  is  to  fall  into  the 
error  which  Moliere  satirized.  To  say  all  this  is  not  to 
belittle  the  magnificent  practical  results  achieved  by 
bacteriologists. 

That  the  results  of  the  search  into  the  actual  nature  of 
immunity  have  apparently  been  so  barren  and  so  con- 
fusing, is,  however,  not  due  to  want  of  suggestions  which 
might  really  work  for  simplicity.  Yet,  so  far  as  I  am  aware, 
Moore  and  Whitley's  paper  on  a  simple  theory  of  immune 
reactions  has  by  no  means  had  the  attention  it  deserved. 
Roughly  speaking,  their  note  put  forward  the  view  that 
immune  bodies  were  to  be  classed  with  catalysts ;  the 
substrate  being  the  cell  or  bacterium  to  be  dissolved,  or  the 
toxin  to  be  rendered  inert,  the  "complement"  various 
bodies  with  which  the  toxin  became  chemically  united,  and 
the  immune  body,  or  "  antibody,"  the  catalyst  which 
insured  such  chemical  combination  or  dissolution,  and 


THE  THEORY  OF  IMMUNITY  131 

rendered  the  pathogenic  cells  or  toxins  harmless.  Such  a 
process  is  obviously  exactly  similar  to  those  which  occur 
with  enzymes  acting  on  any  given  substrate  in  the  presence 
of  a  combining  body :  so  tyrosinase  breaks  up  tyrosin,  and 
causes  it  to  combine  with  the  oxygen  yielded  by  peroxide 
bodies.  A  similar  process  occurs  with  the  ordinary  hydro- 
lytic  enzymes,  as  when  fats,  carbohydrates,  and  proteins 
combine  with  water  in  the  presence  of  their  specific  enzymes, 
such  as  steapsin,  amylopsin,  and  trypsin.  It  may,  how- 
ever, be  further  suggested  that  all  these  actions  are 
really  immunizing  actions,  and  that,  instead  of  immune 
bodies  being  classed  among  enzymes,  the  latter  should  be 
classed  generally  among  immune  bodies,  and  both  among 
catalysts,  the  difference  between  the  first  two  classes 
being  that  enzymes  dealing  with  food  are  a  gradual 
result  of  evolution,  and  that  what  are  usually  called 
immune  bodies  are  special  ad  hoc  reaction  complexes 
of  a  similar  order  depending  on  the  general  powers  of 
reaction  in  the  body  tissues. 

It  is  obvious  that  foods  when  not  broken  up  are  either 
poisons  or  something  which  cannot  be  used,  and  must 
be  excreted.  Thus  proteins  injected  into  the  blood-stream 
are  haemolytic.  To  be  endured  or  used  they  must  be 
broken  up  into  animo-acids.  What  particular  quality  it 
is  in  them  which  makes  them  "  antigens  "  is  obscure ; 
but  it  will  certainly  be  found  eventually  that  it  is  due 
in  all  cases  to  their  "  poisonous  "  (i.e.  disturbing)  action, 
since  they  are  wholly  out  of  their  evolutionary  place. 
It  is  said  that  there  is  no  absolute  relation  between  toxicity 
and  defensive  reaction  ;  but  this  is  only  to  state  the  obvious 
fact  that  the  organism  is  not  armed  at  all  points,  and  may 
be  destroyed  before  it  can  react,  or  that  it  is  already 
supplied  with  general  immune  catalysts  which  deal  easily 


132          WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

with  some  invasions  and  fail  with  others.  It  has  only 
been  through  an  immense  period  of  evolution  that  the 
proteins  and  other  food  elements  have  come  to  stimulate 
the  production  of  specific  enzymes  or  catalysts,  and  it  is 
within  every  clinician's  knowledge  that  in  certain  condi- 
tions of  health  these  necessary  reactions  do  not  occur. 
When  that  is  so  nutrition  fails,  and  food  becomes  a  poison. 
If  this  is  correct,  and  it  cannot  be  doubted,  nutrition 
must  be  regarded  as  an  actual  process  of  real  immuniza- 
tion, in  which  secondary  and  simpler  products  are  used 
by  the  organism  as  food.  Although  I  came  to  these 
conclusions  before  I  was  aware  of  their  work,  it  appears 
that  Abderhalden  and  Weinland  hold  views  of  this  kind. 
Weinland  states  that  the  subcutaneous  injection  of  cane- 
sugar  produced  or  elicited  invertin.  Abderhalden's  work 
on  the  production  of  gestational  immunity  has  exceptional 
value  in  that  it  throws  some  light  on  the  inhibition  of 
the  invasive  action  of  the  chorionic  villi  on  the  uterine 
wall,  and  thereby  on  cancer  also,  as  I  have  suggested  else- 
where. In  the  earlier  stages  of  evolution,  in  all  cell  life 
now,  and  that  of  the  intestinal  absorption  cells,  the  in- 
gestion  of  foods  is  due  to  purely  physical  causes,  i.e. 
causes  which  are  not  sufficiently  obscure  to  be  labelled 
"  psychic  "  when  they  should  be  regarded  as  conditioned 
reflexes.  Like  and  dislike,  choice  and  rejection,  had, 
and  have  (as  regards  cells),  no  long  path  to  depend  on. 
Such  reactions  are  not  even  simple  reflexes.  They  depend 
entirely  on  surface  tension,  on  the  nature  of  the  cell  envelope 
and  the  body  with  which  it  comes  in  contact.  It  may 
be  assumed  that  primitive  cells  which  certainly  possessed 
low  and  scanty  reaction  powers  took  in  all  things  which 
their  physical  nature  did  not  reject.  Some  were  innocuous, 
and  some  were  at  once  ejected.  Some  were  harmful, 


THE  THEORY  OF  IMMUNITY  133 

and  destroyed  the  organism  in  which  they  found  them- 
selves. Others  were  harmful  as  they  stood,  but  by  pro- 
ducing a  reaction  body  they  were  broken  up  and  rendered 
harmless.  Others,  again,  were  not  only  rendered  harmless 
but  actually  useful :  i.e.  they  became  foods  because 
they  provoked  a  definite  catalyst  which  hydrolyzed  them. 
Like  and  dislike  of  foods  in  the  highly  developed  organism 
are  thus  conditioned  protective  reflexes  which  defend 
the  body  from  all  but  foods  selected  through  evolution. 
Nutrition  thus  clearly  falls  under  the  head  of  immunity. 
J.  B.  Farmer  remarks  that  they  are  evidently  closely 
related.  The  sole  real  difference  is  that,  in  what  is  now 
called  immunization,  the  substrate  is  probably  not  em- 
ployed usefully,  though  it  remains  possible  that  in  some 
cases  destroyed  pathogenic  bacteria  may  actually  be 
used  by  the  body  they  attack.  In  any  case  it  is  a  possi- 
bility of  evolution  for  bacteria  to  become  gradually  a 
factor  of  further  growth.  Such  phenomena  may  have 
occurred  already,  as  it  is  at  least  possible  that  the  colon 
is  partly  a  function  of  the  bacteria  that  inhabit  it,  and 
that  some  dead  bacteria  may  be  converted  into  food  after 
their  parasitic  free  existence. 

Nutrition  being  then  a  case  of  immunity,  we  must 
infer  that  food  itself  originally  produces  ad  hoc  catalysts, 
of  an  order  similar  to  those  produced  by  toxins.  Enzymes 
very  rarely  exist  without  the  presence  of  their  substrate. 
The  organism  has  a  specialized  method  of  producing  them 
on  definite  stimulation.  Thus  trypsin  only  appears  on 
trypsinogen  coming  into  contact  with  enterokinaze, 
though  it  would  be  better  to  say  that  when  certain 
colloidal  reactions  of  pancreatic  origin  take  place  in  the 
presence  of  the  latter  trypsin  is  formed.  Lactase  cannot 
be  found  in  a  meat-fed  dog  till  some  days  after  it  is  given 


134          WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

milk.  Before  such  a  reaction  occurs  the  whole  of  the 
food  products  in  the  milk  are  not  utilized.  The  com- 
plementary or  combining  bodies  in  oxidation  and  hydro- 
lytic  processes  are  O  and  H2O,  and  in  all  enzyme  action 
there  is  a  natural  "  complement."  In  the  production  of 
special  immunities  due  to  infection  it  is  difficult  to  discover 
the  combining  body,  although  in  most  acute  infections 
it  may  be  lipoid  in  nature,  as  is  certainly  suggested  by  the 
rapid  consumption  of  fats  in  fevers.  Yet  in  diseases  such 
as  typhoid,  in  which  emaciation  is  not  rapid,  this  does 
not  appear  to  be  the  case.  The  combining  body  in  this 
case  may  not  be  a  lipoid  but  an  albumenoid,  and  perhaps 
the  special  one  found  in  Peyer's  Patches,  where  ulceration 
takes  place,  is  most  exposed  to  be  used  as  complement. 
In  many  cases  of  sudden  and  extreme  weakness  with  a 
high  febrile  reaction,  it  may  be  suggested  that  the  infection 
is  proteolytic.  It  thus  appears  as  if  future  treatment 
may  not  only  include  the  provocation  of  the  special  catalyst, 
but  the  early  supply  of  a  definite  complement  by  injection 
or  in  the  food.  In  most  infections  it  is  probable  that 
what  can  be  most  easily  spared  goes  first.  It  is  possible 
that  the  combining  body  is  always  what  the  bacteria 
would  naturally  feed  on,  which  may  serve  to  explain 
latent  periods  and  the  slow  onset  of  fever  in  many  cases. 

What,  then,  is  the  action  of  the  catalyst  ?  It  must 
be  that  it  builds  up  in  the  bacterium  a  stable  compound, 
and  so  destroys  the  labile  organism  that  takes  in  com- 
plement as  food,  or  that  it  neutralizes  the  toxins  as  they 
are  produced.  Or  it  may  so  completely  alter  the  combin- 
ing body  that  the  bacterium  starves.  As  regards  "  free 
toxins,"  the  catalyst  fulfils  an  obvious  function  by  its 
usual  machinery.  I  suggest  that  the  greatest  function 
of  the  many  attributed  to  the  phagocytes  is  not  their 


THE  THEORY  OF  IMMUNITY  135 

ingestive  powers,  but  their  capacity  of  being  used  as 
"  complement  "  or  a  combining  body.  If  sufficient  of 
their  lipoids  or  proteins,  say,  is  used  up,  they  die  and 
become  pus  :  if  not,  they  survive  and  destroy  the  bacteria 
which  were  attracted  to  them,  and  probably  redigest  the 
lipoid  complement  taken  up.  In  any  case,  the  entrance 
of  the  bacterium  or  toxin  into  the  so-called  phagocyte 
is  probably  pathological.  They  may  recover  or  perish. 
If  they  die  it  is  because  they  are  used  up  in  yielding  parts 
of  themselves  to  the  hostile  cell.  Every  cell  envelope 
has  lipoid  substances  in  it ;  but  the  phagocytes  that  cannot 
yield  any  more  from  the  outside  yield  it  from  within  and 
are  destroyed.  Even  if  that  is  not  the  cause  of  their 
death,  they  may  die  from  toxins  entering  into  chemical 
or  molecular  union  with  the  lipoids  of  the  membrane, 
which  is  rendered  functionless.  If  these  suggestions  have 
any  foundation,  the  leucocytes  generally  have  another 
rdle  in  defence  than  that  commonly  stated.  And  we 
may  infer  that  the  substrate  "  seeks  "  them  and  their 
lipoids  under  the  influence  of  the  special  catalyst,  rather 
than  that  they  "  seek "  the  substrate.  If  this  is  so, 
opsonins  do  not  exist,  and  the  phenomena  they  are  supposed 
to  explain  represent  the  fact  that  the  easiest  reached 
"  complement  "  is  found  by  the  tropisms  of  the  bacteria 
and  the  polynuclears.  The  leucocytes  are  the  cheapest 
sacrifice  the  body  can  make. 

There  seems  plenty  of  evidence  that  enzymes  and  all 
catalysts  appear  only  when  the  organism  is  stimulated  by 
the  particular  substrate  with  which  they  deal.  There  are, 
however,  according  to  Bayliss,  cases  in  which  their  par- 
ticular substrate  is  wanting.  For  instance,  it  seems  that 
lactase  is  found  in  almonds,  as  adrenalin  is  found  in  the 
skin  of  the  toad.  We  say,  then,  that  it  is  an  accidental 


136          WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

product  of  metabolism,  though  in  one  sense  all  such  are 
accidental.  They  may,  however,  have  been  provoked 
by  early  embryonic  substrates,  and  possibly  subserve  some 
function.  Onslow  showed  the  skins  of  some  coloured 
rabbits  contained  a  peroxidase,  the  cause  of  the  colour. 
The  "  adaptation  "  of  the  organism  to  any  substrate  part 
of  its  environment  must  have  been  accidental  to  begin 
with.  Some  cells  had  the  power  of  response,  and  others 
lacked  it.  This  was  so  in  the  early  stages  of  evolution, 
and  the  same  remains  true  now  in  every  case  of  recovery 
or  death  when  an  infection  occurs.  Protective,  continued, 
and  successful  reaction  is  adaptation.  There  are  striking 
analogies  between  such  reactions,  and  those  provoked  by 
drugs  such  as  the  metals.  What  for  instance  is  the  action 
of  arsenic  ?  It  combines  with  the  "  complement "  it 
finds,  and  thus  kills  the  epithelial  cells  which,  according  to 
Filehne,  are  then  digested.  But  killing  a  cell  is  combining 
with  it  or  part  of  it.  Arsenic  in  lethal  quantities  is  such 
a  protoplasm  poison  that  there  can  be  no  swift  reaction 
process  resulting  in  a  catalyst  which  builds  it  up  into  a 
harmless  stable  compound.  In  small  continuous  doses  it 
appears  to  produce  fats,  i.e.  possibly  a  superabundance  of 
complement.  Complement  is  thus  a  common  bodily 
product,  not  anything  specially  manufactured  by  specific 
reactions,  and  therefore  immunization  must  in  many 
cases  mean  a  stimulation  of  the  cells  which  produce  com- 
plement naturally.  Immunity  to  arsenic,  then,  is  most 
likely  due  in  great  part  to  an  increased  production  of 
lipoids.  But  tolerance  is  immunity.  Immunization  is 
thus  a  process  as  normal  as  digestion,  save  that  all  the 
products  are  finally  extruded  as  useless.  The  processes 
leading  to  cure  are  of  the  same  order.  To  give  a  homely 
illustration  we  may  say  that  if  there  is  disturbance  at  a 


137 

meeting  the  disturbers  are  the  substrate  :  the  chairman 
who  orders  them  to  be  thrown  out  the  provoked  catalyst, 
and  those  who  act  on  his  advice  the  complement.  We  may 
even  note  that  the  "  complement  "  not  unseldom  goes  to 
hospital  in  combination  with  the  "  toxin."  In  such  cases 
immunization  is  the  operation  of  a  body  of  stewards 
capable  of  immediate  and  skilled  combination.  It  is 
worth  notice,  since  it  has  frequently  been  suggested  that 
all  living  action  is  based  on  the  same  principles,  that  the 
stewards  are  free  amoeboid  wandering  bodies  ;  while  the 
audience  of  cells  of  the  temporary  organic  body  we  call  a 
"  meeting  "  stay  where  they  are,  unless  there  is  a  violent 
destructive  reaction.  In  what  we  commonly  call  an 
organism  the  white  cells,  being  capable  of  rapid  reproduc- 
tion, and  not  stationary  portions  of  basal  functioning  organs, 
can  be  destroyed  and  replaced.  Part  of  their  normal 
function  is  to  die,  as  it  is  of  soldiers  in  war.  Adequate 
military  preparation  is  expectant  immunity  in  a  nation, 
and  an  organized  police  force  means  the  same  in  a  society. 
Again,  it  can  be  repeated  that  much  light  may  be  thrown 
on  many  obscure  physiological  problems  by  observation 
of  the  simple  social  processes  taking  place  before  our 
eyes.  On  these  lines  we  get  wholly  away  from  Ehrlich, 
and  perceive  that,  if  enzymes,  etc.,  are  immune  bodies, 
immune  bodies  in  their  turn  may  be  classed  with  the  factors 
of  digestion  among  catalysts  generally. 

What  do  we  mean  when  we  speak  of  the  bactericidal 
qualities  of  the  blood  ?  Undoubtedly  the  blood-plasm, 
when  healthy,  destroys  or  incapacitates  invaders.  But 
what  is  the  mechanism  by  which  it  does  so,  and  among 
what  phenomena  are  we  to  class  such  mechanistic  re- 
actions ?  I  am  unable  to  conceive  that  they  can  be  any 
other  type  than  that  which  is  characteristic  of  life  generally. 


138          WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

There  must  be  activating  catalysts.  If  that  is  so  blood 
may  not  be  truly  bactericidal  until  it  is  invaded,  and  only 
then  if  it  is  healthy,  i.e.  if  it  possesses  normal  powers  of 
reaction.  Such  views  account  for  the  high  mortality 
among  the  very  healthy  in  some  disorders,  while  the  sickly 
person  who  is,  perhaps,  half-poisoned  by  an  excess  of  many 
provoked  catalysts  is  prepared,  at  least  partially,  for  any 
kind  of  invasion.  The  organism,  too,  has  to  deal  with, 
destroy,  or  utilize  its  own  products.  Each  organ  must 
deal  with  its  own  excreta,  with  the  excreta  of  its  neighbour 
colonies,  and  for  these  purposes  reacts  on  their  stimula- 
tion. Its  reactions  with  invaders  must  employ  like 
machinery.  Life  itself  depends  on  immunization  which  is 
active  warfare. 

Immunity,  however,  does  not  always  seem  to  be  merely 
a  matter  of  the  increase  of  the  blood's  bactericidal  qualities, 
to  whatever  catalysts  that  may  be  due,  but  to  local  con- 
ditions. How  else  can  relapses  be  explained  ?  For 
instance,  there  are  the  relapses  of  typhoid  fever.  When  the 
fastigium  has  been  reached  and  passed,  and  when  on  any 
theory  a  defence  should  have  been  acquired,  the  tempera- 
ture again  rises,  and  there  is  another  attack.  In  the  same 
way  a  catarrh  of  the  lungs  may  disappear  after  a  due 
reaction  period,  and  another  patch  will  occur.  Such  facts, 
though  they  do  not  negative  the  ordinary  views  of  im- 
munity suggested  above,  at  least  show  that  prolonged 
febrile  reactions  do  not  always  produce  complete  temporary 
immunity  :  the  most  probable  explanation  being  that  the 
local  lesions  in  these  cases  are  external,  as  the  bowel, 
say,  in  typhoid  is  properly  external,  and  are  with  diffi- 
culty exposed  to  the  immunizing  agents,  owing  to  local 
swellings  and  stasis,  or  to  the  incomplete  response  of  the 
weakened  organism  in  the  production  of  the  combining 


THE  THEORY  OF  IMMUNITY  139 

body.  The  catalyst  may  in  that  case  be  present  in  abund- 
ance ;  but  it  has  nothing  to  work  with,  and  the  substrate 
flourishes  on  tissues  which  would  not  be  attacked  if  the 
normal  complement  were  present.  In  some  cases  cata- 
lytic actions  may  themselves  prove  harmful.  It  is  perfectly 
possible  that  the  obscure  and  dangerous  phenomena  of 
anaphylaxis  are  due  to  a  sudden  action  of  a  reversible 
catalyst  breaking  down  what  was  before  built  up,  and 
again  setting  toxins  free.  That  the  immunizing  reactions 
are  permanently  reversible  if  a  disassociation  factor  such 
as  acid  (Morgenroth  and  Ascher)  or  alkali  (Sachs)  is  intro- 
duced, now  seems  certain.  These  workers  are  quoted 
by  Browning  (Brit.  Med.  Journ.,  Dec.  6,  1915). 

Such  conclusions  certainly  reinforce  the  suggestion  that 
in  all  infections  an  effort  should  be  made  to  determine 
with  exactitude  the  natural  combining  body  used  in  the 
body's  defence,  and  that  this  should  be  supplied  in  abund- 
ance by  feeding  or  injection.  On  the  views  expressed  the 
lipoids  or  other  combining  bodies  found  normally  in  the 
organism  would  then  be  spared,  since  it  is  only  reasonable 
that  a  free  lipoid,  etc.,  would  be  dealt  with  rather  than 
a  fixed  lipoid,  say  in  the  cell  envelope.  While  vaccines 
may  provoke  the  catalyst,  they  cannot  always  provoke  the 
"  complement,"  although  when  we  consider  some  drugs 
(and  tolerance  of  drugs,  as  has  been  said,  no  doubt  comes 
under  the  head  of  immunity)  they  may  do  so  indirectly. 
Though  arsenic  when  used  as  a  drug  is  often  useful,  its 
value  may  not  always  depend  on  its  bactericidal  qualities, 
but  on  its  encouragement  of  lipoid  manufacture. 

Thus  finally  we  see  that  nutrition  itself  is  but  a  case 
of  immunity,  and,  instead  of  immunity  being  infinitely 
complex,  on  a  general  view  it  is  no  more  than  an  example 
of  the  fact  that  living  protoplasm  develops  machinery 


140          WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

to  deal  with  the  assaults  it  undergoes  ;  in  some  cases 
changing  and  making  use  of  what  it  ingests,  in  others 
altering  bodies  which  cannot  be  used,  but  may  be  made 
harmless. 

The  points  of  the  likeness  between  a  catalyst  and 
an  engine  or  tool  are  many.  It  is  something  made,  a 
reaction  to  needs.  It  works  and  remains  the  same.  It 
only  wears  out  gradually.  It  makes  a  long  process  short, 
a  difficult  one  easy.  It  can  build  up  and  break  down. 
Such  qualities  can  be  seen  in  a  sociological  example  if 
we  take  two  living  communities,  or  societies  combining 
for  a  common  purpose,  for  then  combinations  will  result 
which  have  the  most  remarkable  likeness  to  such  catalysts, 
and  exhibit  biological  phenomena  which  throw  a  light 
on  the  reason  that  enzyme  bodies  have  reversible  re- 
actions. We  may,  for  instance,  suppose  that  a  botanical 
and  a  zoological  society  find  it  necessary  for  purposes  of 
existence  to  take  a  common  house.  It  is  obvious  that 
we  have  here  a  symbiotic  but  not  necessarily  a  symphilic 
community,  and  it  is  equally  obvious  that  both  original 
purposes  must  be  served,  or  the  whole  structure  fails.  To 
carry  on  work  some  of  the  individuals  must  represent  the 
others,  and  this  common  secretarial  office  remains  as  a 
formed  reaction  body  or  engine  for  getting  the  work  done. 
When  one  society  is  most  active  at  any  given  time  its 
action  may  be  regarded  as  synthetic  so  far  as  it  is  con- 
cerned, and  the  process  implies  a  temporary  displacement 
or  breaking  down  of  the  others.  When  this  is  over  the 
reverse  action  takes  place.  But  all  the  time  the  formed 
reaction  or  joint  secretarial  body  remains.  An  enzyme 
can  thus  be  compared  with  the  common  alternative 
executive  of  at  least  a  double  body  which  has  different 
internal  but  common  external  ends.  However  extravagant 


THE  THEORY  OF  IMMUNITY  141 

such  a  homely  illustration  may  appear  it  probably  repre- 
sents actual  biochemical  facts ;  for  it  shows  how  two 
molecules  living  in  hostile  symbiosis  must  affect  each 
other  and  produce  reaction  bodies  which  are  highly  complex, 
and  represent  in  turn  the  energies  of  each  molecule.  Such 
a  view  affords  a  reasonable  ground  of  explanation  for  the 
reversible  reactions  of  catalysts  themselves.  Without  such 
reactions  it  is  not  easy  to  follow  the  possible  ways  of  growth. 

It  will  not  seem  absurd  to  some  if  it  is  said  that  these 
likenesses  are  to  be  found  at  the  bottom  of  all  growth, 
whether  of  atoms  or  nations,  and  that  they  are  part  of  a 
universal  law  which  may  be  expressed  thus  :  All  life  and 
growth  is  fundamentally  the  forced  result  of  a  symbiosis 
of  differing  bodies  in  which  hostile  energies  become  the 
common,  mutual,  and  reciprocal  internal  stimuli  of  the 
conjoint  individual.  This  includes  all  living  things  from 
the  two  molecules  (or  more),  each  with  a  catalyst,  which 
probably  make  up  the  simplest  form  of  life. 

To  summarize  the  views  expressed  it  may  be  said  that — 
(i)  To  understand  immunity  it  must  include  all  processes 
of  nutrition.  (2)  All  unsplit  ingested  bodies  are  "  poison- 
ous "  or  rejected  as  neutral  and  useless.  (3)  Enzymes 
are  the  catalysts  which  build  up  for  storage  or  break 
down  for  use.  (4)  Immune  bodies  in  infections  are  pro- 
voked catalysts  dealing  more  or  less  well  with  the  sub- 
strate bacterium,  or  toxin.  (5)  Poisons,  metallic  or 
alkaloid,  etc.,  when  tolerance  is  established,  have  pro- 
voked a  catalyst  to  deal  with  them.  (6)  "  Complement  " 
is  not  a  fixed  quantity,  but  the  special  or  general  com- 
bining body  used  by  the  catalyst  and  the  substrate. 
(7)  Many  of  the  difficulties  experienced  by  bacteriologists 
in  reaching  satisfactory  conclusions  on  immunity  are  due 
to  their  neglect  of  colloidal  chemistry. 


142          WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

It  certainly  appears  that  the  terms  employed  in  general 
physiology  should  be  sufficient  for  bacteriology,  and 
observers  of  fresh  phenomena  ought  to  be  chary  of  coining 
new  words.  Their  hasty  multiplication  usually  implies 
some  additional  hypothesis.  It  is  characteristic  of  a 
false  explanation  to  require  an  increasing  number  of 
sub-hypotheses  while  a  real  one  abolishes  a  multitude  of 
superfluous  terms,  and,  displaying  a  phenomenon  as  the 
function  of  known  variables,  by  such  a  disclosure  becomes 
essentially  a  simplification. 

REFERENCES. 

ABDERHALDEN,  EMIL. — "  Biological  Reactions  in  Pregnancy," 
Brit.  Med.  Journ.,  London,  Jan.  24,  1914,  p.  207. 

BAYLISS,  M.  W. — "  Principles  of  General  Physiology,"  1915. 

BROWNING. — Brit.  Med.  Journ.,  London,  June  2,  1915. 

FARMER,  J.  B.— "Plant  Life,"  1913. 

MOORE,  B.,  and  WHITLEY. — Biochem.  Journ.,  1907,  London, 
vol.  iv.  p.  165. 

MOORE,  B. — Brit.  Med.  Journ.,  London,  Dec.  22,  1917. 

MORGENROTH  and  ASHER. — v.  Browning,  ibid.,  Feb.  6,  1915. 

ONSLOW,  H. — Proc.  Royal  Soc.,  1915,  Book  xxxix.  p.  36. 

ROBERTS,  MORLEY. — Brit.  Med.  Journ.,  London,  Dec.  8,  1917. 

SACHS. — v.  Browning,  ibid.,  Feb.  6,  1915. 

VERWORN,  MAX. — "  Die  Biogenhypoithese,"  Jena. 

WEINLAND. — Brit.  Med.  Journ.,  London,  Jan.  24,  1914,  p.  207. 


CHAPTER   VI 

THE  CANNIBAL  IN  EVOLUTION 

WE  speak  very  commonly  of  the  romance  of  science, 
and  in  its  every  branch,  however  recondite 
and  apparently  remote  from  human  interest,  there  is  that 
sense  of  adventure  which  makes  its  votaries  thrill  with 
expectation.  The  search  for  a  principle  which  may 
throw  light  upon  almost  palpable  obscurity  is  not  unlike 
the  work  of  the  explorer  who  climbs  a  peak  in  order  to 
discover  a  way  through  the  unknown.  Not  only  the 
traveller  stands  "  silent  upon  a  peak  in  Darien."  But 
to  discover  a  new  general  law,  or  even  to  extend  one,  is 
far  more  than  such  a  distant  prospect.  It  is  to  camp 
in  the  wilderness  and  gather  strength  for  the  morrow's 
task.  In  the  world  of  geography  what  is  known  is  known, 
and  cannot  be  forgotten.  The  time  must  come  when 
the  explorer's  work  will  be  done.  But  science  is  limitless, 
and  so  is  human  history,  for  there  is  not  only  the  future 
which  must  become  at  last  a  tale  that  is  told,  but  also 
the  illimitable  field  of  the  past  still  as  little  unmapped  as 
the  fabled  Africa  of  the  mediaeval  cartographer.  It  is, 
indeed,  but  a  dim  and  faded  palimpsest,  or  some  inscrip- 
tion in  an  unknown  tongue,  of  which  we  know  but  a  few 
words,  that  may  prove  keys  by  which  it  may  be  deciphered. 
What  of  the  march  of  power  and  intellect  in  man  it  may 

reveal  we  can  only  guess,  though  we  may  surmise  from 

143 


144          WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

human  experiences  and  our  own  nature  that  it  must 
contain  terrible  passages,  which  some,  perhaps,  would 
fear  to  look  upon. 

In  the  study  of  anthropology  there  is,  perhaps,  the 
most  legitimate  field  for  the  constructive  imagination. 
So  much  may  be  seen  in  the  realm  of  history,  the  brief 
portion  of  the  story  of  man  with  which  we  are  partially 
acquainted.  A  history  without  imagination  is  but  a  false 
and  dusty  record,  a  sketch  in  black  and  white  of  what  was 
once  a  glowing  fresco.  The  shelves  of  libraries  are  full 
of  such  dead  documents,  and  only  occasionally  does  the 
reader  light  upon  a  work,  or  even  a  passage  in  a  work, 
to  which  the  realizing  imagination  has  given  a  sense  of 
motion  and  life.  Such  a  passage  is  to  be  found  in  Pro- 
fessor Murray's  Rise  of  the  Greek  Epic,  when  he  describes 
vividly,  and  with  convincing  power,  the  probably  course 
and  conduct  of  an  early  migration  in  the  ^Egean  Sea. 
It  is  a  matter  for  regret  that  even  anthropology,  with  all 
its  immense  implications,  should  exhibit  much  of  that 
restricting  tendency  of  scientific  men  to  confine  themselves 
to  special  rather  than  general  fields.  Yet  just  as  its  study 
throws  light  upon  the  conduct  and  behaviour  of  living  races, 
so  many  special  studies,  that,  perhaps,  of  Pelasgian  myth 
or  history,  may  help  to  solve  the  mysteries  of  the  un- 
historic  past.  Even  if  it  does  not  do  so  directly,  it  will 
show  specialists  that  to  ignore  the  imagination  is  to  deprive 
themselves  of  the  most  powerful  weapon  in  the  whole 
armoury  of  research.  If  in  the  course  of  some  daring  and 
slenderly  based  speculations  their  rash  author  makes  one 
possible  suggestion,  he  is  as  much  justified  as  the  poet  who 
writes  but  one  memorable  line.  In  such  a  fluctuant, 
inchoate  branch  of  learning,  it  cannot  be  said  that  know- 
ledge has  yet  reached  the  period  when  theory  is  held  to  be 


THE  CANNIBAL  IN  EVOLUTION  145 

dangerous,  which  is,  I  must  suppose,  the  time  when  the 
supporters  of  some  particular  view  wish  to  see  every  one's 
energy  consumed  in  the  search  for  facts  to  uphold  it. 
But,  to  alter  the  phrase  of  the  Master  of  Trinity,  none  is 
infallible,  even  the  oldest,  who  not  unnaturally  are  apt 
to  regard  their  settled  opinions  with  the  greatest  respect. 
A  new  hypothesis,  or  a  new  application  of  an  ancient 
one,  is,  however,  in  its  way  as  much  a  fact  as  bones  in  a 
tumulus,  and  may  perhaps  do  work  as  important  as  the 
Piltdown  skull. 

Among  the  curiosities  of  the  human  intellect  is  its 
great  reluctance  to  acknowledge  anything  now  regarded 
with  moral  reprobation  as  once  normal  to  mankind.  The 
tendency  of  all  races  to  place  the  Golden  Age  in  the  past, 
which  is  the  result  of  a  dread  of  change,  since  any  alteration 
may  bring  disaster,  and  must  cause  temporary  disorder, 
acts  thus  as  a  forgotten  complex  even  in  science.  In  spite 
of  some  authorities  having  recognized  the  probability  that 
all  races  have  passed  through  a  stage  of  cannibalism, 
many  others  of  equal  or  greater  prestige  appear  to  regard 
the  notion  with  horror. 

It  is  objectionable  to  their  moral  feelings,  and,  although 
it  is  the  first  duty  of  the  scientific  thinker  to  clear  his 
mind  of  prejudice,  some  are  obviously  unable  to  do  so. 
Accordingly  one  very  great  authority  practically  asserts, 
not  without  feeling,  that  horror  of  incest  is  a  primary  feeling 
in  man,  an  abstract  notion  thus  preceding  experience — a 
totally  impossible  position  to  occupy  in  any  "science" 
but  theology.  As  it  happens  I  myself  encountered  this 
moral  feeling  with  regard  to  cannibalism,  when  in  an  essay, 
published  in  an  obscure  journal  more  than  twenty-five 
years  ago,  I  attributed  to  it  very  great  and  important 
evolutionary  results.  It  is  true  that  no  notice  of  an 


146         WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

immature  paper  was  taken  by  any  authority,  a  fact  I  by 
no  means  resented,  although  hardly  then  fully  aware 
that  any  variation  in  thought,  like  a  variation  in  the 
physical  conformation  of  an  individual,  is  more  likely  to  be 
swamped  than  perpetuated.  Since  then,  in  discussing  the 
view  suggested,  I  have  found  the  moral  complex  showing 
itself,  at  times  with  almost  theological  ardour,  even  in 
the  instructed.  They  seemed  willing  to  agree  with 
M'Cullough  and  others  that  a  stage  of  cannibalism  might 
have  been  universal,  or  nearly  universal;  but  to  view  it 
as  a  powerful  factor  of  progress  and  human  advance  was 
something  not  easy  to  masticate,  much  less  to  swallow. 
Yet  some  reason  may  possibly  be  shown  for  believing  that 
cannibalism,  combined  with  war  for  a  special  purpose,  can 
help  us  to  account  for  many  problems  yet  unsolved.  Even 
a  very  simple  suggestion  sometimes  acts  as  a  catalyst, 
and  hastens  mental  reactions.  It  may  often  help  to 
neutralize  moral  prejudice,  and  increase  in  some  measure 
the  number  of  those  who  have  learnt  to  adopt  Spinoza's 
attitude  towards  humanity.  Man's  acts,  his  very  per- 
turbations of  "spirit,"  are  to  be  studied  as  we  study 
thunderstorms. 

If  such  views  are  not  refused  a  hearing  it  may  be  sug- 
gested that  they  will  throw  some  light  upon  the  develop- 
ment of  man  as  an  intellectual  animal.  And  if  it  is  assumed, 
as  certainly  seems  likely,  that  Keith  is  right  in  tracing  back- 
ward to  Pleistocene  times  the  modern  type  of  skull,  it 
should  help  to  fill  up  the  gap  in  development  between 
that  type  and  such  as  Piltdown  man.  For  if  the  modern 
skull  goes  back  so  far,  and  the  Piltdown  type  is  so  late,  the 
very  stability  of  the  modern  type  suggests  that  there  must 
have  been  a  period,  long  in  years  or  centuries,  but  short  by 
the  geologic  clock,  in  which  man  became  immensely 


147 

plastic  and  changed  with  relative  rapidity.  The  evidence 
seems  quite  ample  which  tends  to  prove  great  stability 
of  type  after  the  middle  or  late  Pleistocene  era,  and  such 
stability  shows  to  all  who  believe  in  environmental  in- 
fluence, or  in  natural  selection,  that  since  then  there  has 
been  no  great  fundamental  change  of  moulding  factors. 
Some,  indeed,  imagine  that  what  is  called  civilization  has 
been  such  a  factor.  This  is  practically  assumed  by 
most  who  hold  that  "  modern  "  man  is  historically  modern. 
But,  as  any  change  seems  great  to  individuals  who  are 
disturbed,  it  is  natural  for  most  to  come  rapidly  to  the 
conclusion  that  great  past  political  and  social  changes  may 
have  had,  and  perhaps  must  have  had,  an  evolutionary 
effect  even  if  comparatively  recent.  Yet  as  most  changes 
are  now  but  new  orientations  in  thought,  which  do  not 
lead  to  the  destruction  of  established  physical  types, 
and  as  such  factors  of  selection  as  ill-health,  defective 
mentation,  and  so  forth,  have  continually  operated  from  the 
dawn  of  life,  no  vital  factors  can  be  discovered  working  at 
the  present  time  which  suggest  the  new  and  rapid  evolution 
of  a  cranial  type.  If  such  factors  worked,  one  or  more  of 
them  must  have  disappeared.  Since  the  ancient  complex 
of  imagination,  fear  and  regret  has  ceased  to  picture  the 
happy  golden  ages  of  the  past  as  a  restful  paradise  compared 
with  the  dim  uncertain  paths  of  the  future,  even  the  most 
conservative  only  employ  their  imagination  in  construct- 
ing ideal  scenes  in  a  blissful  state  of  ordered  feudalism,  and 
for  very  many  it  has  become  a  habit  to  picture  them- 
selves as  the  apex  and  acme  of  possible  mankind.  So 
indeed  it  was  in  the  past,  for  even  if  the  poets  of  Greece 
and  Rome  looked  backward  to  the  Saturnia  regna,  as 
the  tribes  of  Central  Australia  do  to  Alcheringa,  they 
would  yet  maintain  that  they  had  reached  a  summit  of 


148          WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

civilization  from  which  only  a  descent  was  possible.  Man- 
kind thus  tends  naturally  to  believe  that  great  attainment, 
even  if  fabulous  peace  has  passed  away,  is  their  own  work, 
and  the  work  of  their  immediate  ancestors.  It  follows 
that  there  is  a  natural  prejudice  against  admitting  that,  in 
all  human  powers  and  attributes  of  brain,  man's  remote 
ancestors  were  his  equals,  even  though  they  lacked  his 
present  knowledge.  To  get  rid  of  such  predispositions  is 
part  of  the  task  of  science,  if  it  would  solve  the  problem  as 
to  the  factors  which  were  at  work  at  the  time  of  man's 
greatest  cranial  plasticity. 

While  it  is  not  difficult  to  believe  that  Mousterian  man 
possessed  an  average  cerebral  capacity  more  than  equal  to 
that  found  now,  some  find  it  hard  to  credit  such  brains 
with  imagination  and  powers  of  logical  thought.  Yet  Fraser 
has  shown  that  many  who  are  called  the  lowest  savages 
reason  with  perfect  logic,  even  if  they  argue  from  un- 
examined  and  illicit  premisses.  It  ill  befits  the  average 
man  of  the  present  day  to  cast  a  stone  at  them,  since 
the  subjection  of  his  own  major  premisses  to  critical 
examination  invariably  causes  him  much  uneasiness. 
Even  the  greatest  are  at  times  subject  to  the  same 
weakness.  Ancient  man  was  always  reasoning  and, 
since  pure  logic  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  truth  or  false- 
hood of  propositions,  but  only  with  their  agreement,  there 
is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  a  school  logic  of  merit  might 
not  have  been  composed  from  a  study  of  the  ratio- 
cinative  processes  of  the  earliest  modern  type  of  brain 
known  to  us.  We  may,  indeed,  analyse  further,  and  in 
so  doing  discover  that  logic  is  to  be  found  in  even  lower 
human  types,  or  in  the  animals  themselves.  A  cat  who 
smells  a  mouse,  and  takes  means  to  catch  it,  is  using 
direct  inference.  Moreover,  in  considering  the  evolution 


THE  CANNIBAL  IN  EVOLUTION  149 

of  the  imagination  and  intellect  we  are  apt,  according 
to  Keith's  views,  to  think  that  when  we  make  great  dis- 
coveries they  must  be  relatively  greater  than  those  dis- 
covered in  the  past.  Yet  it  may  be  doubted  if  Napier 
of  Merchistoun  made  a  greater  discovery  than  the  un- 
known genius  who  first  counted  on  his  fingers.  It  is  at 
least  certain  that,  though  logarithms  lessen  labour,  they 
have  not  lessened  it  to  the  millionth  extent  that  finger 
reckoning,  and  all  that  has  flowed  from  it,  including 
logarithms  themselves,  have  since  achieved.  To  learn 
how  to  make  fire  was  a  greater  discovery  than  any 
made  by  Watt,  while  the  inventors  of  the  wheel  or  the 
wedge  must  have  been  men  of  the  very  highest  capacity. 
The  same  may  be  said  of  the  arts,  for  the  discovery 
that  an  outline  represented  in  some  magical  way  a  real 
animal  or  a  person,  whether  it  was  found  out  by  some 
savage  boy  outlining  a  shadow,  cast  by  the  camp- 
fire,  on  a  neighbouring  rock,  or  by  some  primeval 
master,  was  an  effort  of  much  more  amazing  originality 
than  a  masterpiece  by  Rembrandt  or  Rubens.  We 
cannot,  perhaps  unjustly,  attribute  most,  or  even  many, 
of  such  inventions  to  a  Piltdown  brain.  The  question 
is  then  how  it  came  about  that  relatives,  close  or  far 
removed,  of  Homo  Eoanthropus  gave  rise,  within  a  com- 
paratively short  period  of  time,  to  the  later  and  still 
prevalent  type,  capable  of  the  highest  intellectual  efforts. 
A  solution  of  the  problem  may,  perhaps,  be  found  in 
cannibalism  as  the  chief  factor,  if  it  first  gave  rise  to 
organized  war  and  the  development  of  weapons,  such  as 
made  the  best  period  of  Chellean  art  a  time  of  master- 
pieces in  flint. 

It  is  certainly  justifiable  to  assume  that  some  such 
factor  is  needed   for  explanation.      If  the   missing  link 


150          WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

is  not  so  much  a  typ^of  man  as  a  missing  page  of  human 
history,  of  which  the  previous  and  following  parts  show 
immense  changes,  we  are  equally  within  our  rights 
in  filling  up  the  lacuna  by  the  use  of  an  adequate 
hypothesis  as  we  should  be  in  supplying  to  a  tragic 
play  a  missing  scene  which,  to  render  later  acts  possible, 
must  have  contained  a  murder.  In  such  a  mutilated 
script  there  is  a  strict  parallel  to  what  was  probably 
the  most  tragic  part  of  human  history.  The  play 
would  perpetually  suggest  the  action  of  the  missing 
portion,  and  so,  in  later  and  modern  history,  and  in  the 
instincts  of  man,  we  have  hints,  and  more  than  hints, 
that  obscene  tribal  survivals  represent  historic  universal 
truth,  even  if  nothing  is  said  here  of  cave  remains,  skulls, 
or  bones,  which  are  the  island  peaks  of  the  submerged 
continent  of  anthropology. 

If  such  deep  seas  cover  that  lost  land  they  may  yet 
be  sounded,  and,  as  it  were,  dredged,  so  that  in  the  end, 
by  actual  evidence  and  logical  inference  combined,  the 
unknown  may  be  mapped  out.  If  we  judge  from  what 
remains  in  those  savage  customs  which  offer  the  best 
means  of  deduction,  we  get  lines  pointing  in  definite 
directions.  If  more  than  one  line  indicates  the  same 
solution,  the  inferential  value  of  both  is  much  in- 
creased. Such  a  method  is  similar  to  that  by  which 
bee-hunters  seek  the  tree -hive  where  they  look  for 
honey.  By  the  observation  of  the  flight  of  the  insects 
on  their  homeward  path  they  obtain  lines  of  triangula- 
tion  which  are  a  sure  guide.  As  regards  the  early 
history  of  man  one  such  line  may  be,  perhaps,  found  in 
Atkinson's  Primal  Law  —  the  repository  of  views  too 
much  neglected.  From  a  study  of  "  avoidance "  in 
forms  well  known  to  him,  its  author  at  least  deduced 


THE  CANNIBAL  IN  EVOLUTION  151 

something  of  the  nature  and  origin  of  the  primal  family, 
its  laws  and  customs.  He  pictures  the  savage  ape-like 
ancestor  of  man  as  the  father  and  husband  of  all  his 
female  children,  as  well  as  of  the  stolen  women  who  bore 
them.  An  immense  and  overpowering  sex  jealousy 
led  to  the  extrusion  of  the  male  offspring  when  they 
reached  the  age  of  puberty.  Such  sons  broke  into  the 
sanctity  of  the  family  circle  dominated  by  some  other 
ancestor  of  man,  and  set  up  for  themselves.  Incest  at 
that  time  was  not  intercourse  between  father  and 
daughter,  but  between  brother  and  sister,  son  and  aunt, 
or  mother,  and  the  penalty  assigned  and  exacted  for 
ages  was  death.  According  to  Atkinson,  and  here  I 
by  no  means  follow  him,  such  a  system  was  probably 
broken  down  when  the  patriarch  grew  old  by  the  ex- 
ceptional influence  of  some  "  wife  "  who  retained  great 
maternal  love  for  her  latest  grown-up  male  child.  It 
seems  that  other  more  widely  operating  and  less 
abstract  motives  can  be  shown,  which  must  have  exerted 
their  influence  on  the  husband  and  father  of  the  camp 
and  all  its  members. 

It  is  now  some  fifteen  years  ago  since  I  deduced  from 
certain  social  phenomena,  which  I  propose  to  indicate, 
a  particular  theory  of  the  family  and  the  two-class 
tribe.  This  I  submitted  to  the  late  Sir  Laurence  Gomme 
and  Dr.  Haddon.  After  some  consideration  they  re- 
ferred me  to  Atkinson's  paper,  reprinted  in  Lang's  Social 
Origins,  as  they  were  of  opinion  that  my  views  had  been 
largely  anticipated  by  him.  I  discovered  this  to  be  a 
fact,  and  for  a  short  time  experienced  those  feelings  of 
indignation  natural  in  one  who  believes  himself  a 
pioneer,  and  finds  a  camp  pitched  on  what  he  thought 
an  unknown  territory.  Such  feelings  did  not  last  long. 


152         WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

When  a  hypothesis  is  immediately  verifiable,  and  dis- 
covery is  anticipated  by  others,  there  is  little  ..or  no 
compensation.  If  Adams  had  been  forestalled  by  Lever- 
rier  in  the  discovery  of  Uranus  by  long  months  or 
years,  and  the  planet  had  actually  been  found  for  the 
more  fortunate  mathematician,  the  sense  of  disap- 
pointment must  have  been  acute.  But  in  my  own  case 
no  such  verification  was  at  hand,  and  I  was  quite  aware 
from  the  attitude  of  those  who  advised  me,  and  my  own 
knowledge  of  theory,  that  Atkinson's  views  were  thought 
of  little  value.  Naturally  they  did  not  seem  so  to  me, 
for  while  he  had  deduced  his  theory  from  the  facts  of  the 
social  phenomenon,  known  as  "  avoidance,"  of  which 
the  last  remnants  are  to  be  found  tabulated  in  the 
ecclesiastical  Table  of  Affinities,  I  had  come  to  the  same 
conclusion  by  a  deduction  from  opposed  and  anta- 
gonistic phenomena,  the  existence  of  which  his  views 
helped  to  explain.  For  if  he  drew  his  premisses  from 
savage  life  and  "  avoidance,"  I  drew  my  own  from 
certain  facts  observed  by  myself,  and  even  now  observ- 
able by  all,  in  modern  society  whether  in  England 
or  elsewhere,  facts  not  of  avoidance,  but  of  a  peculiar  form 
of  jealousy,  which  seemed  to  me  an  obvious  survival  of 
ancient  instinct. 

It  is  a  truth,  known  to  almost  all  wives  and  to  women 
generally,  whether  they  have  observed  it  in  their  own 
husbands  and  fathers,  or  in  those  of  others,  that  some- 
thing more  than  an  over-exigent  desire  to  ensure  their 
female  children  being  comfortably  and  suitably  settled, 
prevents  many  men  from  welcoming  suitors  for  their 
daughters.  And  I  may  say  here  that  the  deductions 
I  draw  from  this  are  probably  seldom  known  to  the 
fathers  themselves.  To  act  instinctively  without  the 


THE  CANNIBAL  IN  EVOLUTION  153 

knowledge  of  the  why  or  wherefore  is  common  enough, 
and  the  origin  of  many  surprising  facts  can  be  explained 
by  certain  developments  in  modern  psychological  theory 
and  practice.  Not  a  few  men  object  to  the  presence 
of  other  men  in  their  house,  especially  when  they  are 
not  present,  even  when  all  thoughts  of  purely  marital 
jealousy  are  wanting.  They  even  object  to  the  "  party," 
that  feminine  function  which  tends  to  lead  to  love 
affairs.  But  the  main  fact  is  that  the  resistance  such 
show  to  the  marriage  of  their  daughters  cannot  be  ex- 
plained on  acknowledged  social  principles.  The  young 
people  may  exhibit  every  sign  of  true  affection,  the 
suitor  may  be  of  good  character,  even  of  high  social 
standing,  and  yet  the  father  will  raise  every  imaginable 
objection,  and  put  every  conceivable  obstacle  in  the  way 
of  the  desired  marriage.  In  many  cases  I  have  known 
the  young  men  forbidden  the  house  on  the  mere  ground, 
the  last  the  father  had,  that  he  did  not  like  the  man, 
whom  he  slandered  in  the  bosom  of  his  family  without 
being  aware  he  was  precipitating  flight  and  an  elopement, 
which  is  the  modern  form  of  marriage  by  capture.  There 
are  cases,  well  known  in  later  literary  history,  in  which, 
after  furious  struggles,  this  result  has  occurred,  and  in 
biographies  we  see  the  parent's  resistance  put  down  to 
anything  but  its  real  cause.  That  is  said  to  have  been 
his  great  affection  for  his  daughter,  her  necessity  in  the 
house,  her  father's  need  of  companionship,  or  the  needs 
of  her  mother ;  but  never  in  any  instance  to  deep-seated 
sex  jealousy  of  instinctive  origin.  Without  relating  in 
any  detail  my  own  observations  and  experiences  in  this 
matter,  I  may  say  that  on  making  inquiry  of  many  men 
with  daughters,  quite  a  number  of  them  owned  that  they 
had  seen  in  others  what  I  had  seen,  and  a  few,  who  had 


154          WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

been  accustomed  to  the  analysis  of  motive  in  various 
branches  of  medicine,  actually  admitted  that  they  had 
felt  the  very  emotions  of  sex  jealousy  I  have  indicated 
as  yet  existing  in  modern  society.  Moreover,  on  consult- 
ing a  lady,  herself  no  mean  anthropologist,  she  declared 
the  phenomenon,  whether  understood  or  not,  was  known 
to  all  women  by  experience  or  report,  and  that  it  was 
not  infrequently  hinted  at  in  private  feminine  conversa- 
tion. The  more  observations  I  have  made  the  more  I 
have  been  convinced  that  the  facts  are  as  stated,  and  it 
was  from  the  hypothesis  that  even  now  large  numbers  of 
men,  without  any  desire  of  possession  apparent  to  them- 
selves, are  sexually  jealous  as  to  their  female  children, 
that  I  deduced  the  same  conclusion  that  Atkinson  had 
reached  by  the  opposed  but  complementary  hypothesis 
of  avoidance.  It  may  here  be  remarked  that  the  common 
sex  coldness  between  members  of  the  same  family  is  thus 
not  due  to  being  brought  up  together,  as  commonly 
supposed,  but  that  it  is  the  last  result  of  the  system  of 
avoidance  become  instinctive  in  boys  and  girls  by  long 
ages  of  inheritance,  in  which  the  penalty  of  infraction  of 
parental  law  was  death.  Such  a  conclusion,  it  may  be 
remarked,  is  against  the  view  that  the  young  men  sought 
their  wives  at  any  time  in  the  camp  from  which  they 
had  been  extruded. 

It  should,  however,  be  made  quite  clear  that  these 
ancient  surviving  instincts  are  not  so  vocal  or  so  clamour- 
ous as  to  speak  clearly  in  those  who  now  retain  them. 
The  most  jealous  parent  of  the  kind  may  not  have  the 
slightest  notion  of  the  reasons  moving  him.  As  far  as 
each  successive  suitor  is  concerned,  it  is  to  him  a  case  of 
"  Dr.  Fell,"  and  there  is  an  end  of  it.  But  many  are 
distinctly  conscious  of  the  facts,  though  such  conscious- 


THE  CANNIBAL  IN  EVOLUTION  155 

ness  is  in  many  cases  sedulously  hidden,  even  if  acknow- 
ledged, as  I  have  reason  to  believe,  in  the  confessional 
or  the  physician's  consulting  room.  I  know  that  such 
an  analysis,  however  supported,  is  as  little  likely  to  meet 
with  approval  as  the  suggestion  that  cannibalism  itself 
is  responsible  for  much  of  our  mental  make-up.  The 
reception  of  the  idea,  even  by  many  of  those  who  might 
be  supposed  to  view  all  things  in  the  "  dry  light  "  of 
the  Freudian  psycho-analysis,  has  been  almost  one  of 
tumultuous  opposition,  although  the  light  that  Freud 
casts,  both  on  normal  and  abnormal  cerebration,  has  been 
of  the  utmost  value.  It  may,  I  think,  hold  a  lamp  even 
in  anthropology,  and  it  is  possible  that  certain  conclusions 
drawn  by  its  aid  in  the  matter  now  discussed  may 
strengthen  the  growing  belief  in  it  as  a  weapon  of  dis- 
covery. According  to  the  views  expressed  in  other 
places,  it  is  far  more  than  probable  that  what  proves  of 
value  in  individual  psychology  will  aid  to  unravel  the 
tangled  web  of  racial  subconsciousness  in  which  the  in- 
stincts have  their  root.  Few  are  now  totally  ignorant  of 
Freud's  work  in  the  analysis  of  the  subconscious  mind. 
However  they  may  look  upon  it,  or  upon  some  of  the 
extravagances  of  its  more  indiscreet  advocates,  not 
many  can  be  found  to  deny  that  the  hypothesis  of  hidden 
complexes,  by  which  is  meant  a  series  of  cerebral  reflex 
arcs  still  in  a  state  of  subconscious  tone  and  capable  of 
producing  peculiar  effects,  has  exerted  an  immense  in- 
fluence on  the  theory  of  conscious  mentation,  or  mental 
action.  An  early  impression,  although  forgotten,  or  dis- 
sociated from  the  general  web  of  memory,  since  a  memory 
can  only  be  the  repeated  passage  of  impulses  over  many 
definite  synapses,  may  condition  for  better  or  worse  the 
whole  life  of  the  individual  to  whom  the  incident  has 


156          WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

happened.  It  has  not,  however,  been  general  to  attribute 
good  rather  than  evil,  health  rather  than  disease,  to  such 
unconscious  memories.  But  kindly,  or  thoughtful,  or 
unselfish  acts  may  leave  their  mark  in  the  same  way, 
and  a  sound  early  education  is,  perhaps,  no  more  than 
the  excitation  of  such  useful  complexes.  More  is 
definitely  known,  however,  of  the  evil  effects  of  painful 
forgotten  incidents  which  often  yield  to  psycho-analysis. 
By  a  skilful  use  of  morbid  symptoms,  shown  in  myriad 
forms,  the  operator  may  link  up  the  past  with  the  present, 
and  demonstrate  to  the  patient  the  trifling  origin  of  his 
ills.  To  do  so  seems  to  be  the  drainage  of  what  we  may 
call  figuratively  a  mental  abscess.  I  am  not  aware  that 
any  one  has  suggested  that  the  human  brain  or  mind, 
the  depository  of  the  racial  subconsciousness  of  man, 
must  show  in  its  very  constitution  similar  phenomena. 
There  must  be  human  deep-seated  hidden  complexes 
determining  thought  and  action,  and  showing,  if  we  could 
read  them  aright,  through  what  avenues  our  ancestors 
have  passed.  When  some  hidden  complex,  which  might 
have  worked  morbid  results,  has  been  sublimated,  as  the 
psycho-analysts  call  the  process,  the  hidden  repressed 
energy  makes  a  healthy  path  for  itself  in  the  brain,  and 
lifts  up  such  things  as  repressed  sex  feelings  into  devo- 
tion, altruism,  and  even  self-sacrifice.  Such  must  have 
been  part  of  the  method  by  which  the  racial  type  of  brain 
has  been  developed,  and  so  certain  do  I  regard  this  that 
I  think  it  might  have  been  possible  to  deduce  from  racial 
history,  folk-lore,  and  even  written  history,  the  very  theory 
of  psycho-analysis  itself.  Myth  and  legend  often  enough 
are  sublimations,  but  in  the  deep  melancholy,  or  unmiti- 
gated brutality  of  some  races,  may  be  detected  ancient 
influences  not  so  fortunate  in  their  issue.  Reversion  to 


THE  CANNIBAL  IN  EVOLUTION  157 

ancient  type  in  the  masses  of  a  race,  a  subject  not  remote 
from  us,  is  rendered  easier  to  understand.  For  in  their 
brains  lie  quiescent  the  memory  and  actual  cerebral 
machinery  which  once  more  may  be  set  working  by  some 
great  stimulus.  War  could  not  be  the  passionate  relief 
in  action  that  it  is  to  many,  if  its  memories  were  not 
graven  deep  even  in  the  peaceful.  So  now,  perhaps,  in 
the  night-horrors  of  children  or  their  elders,  there  may 
be  some  dim  relic  of  ancestral  fear,  which  many  childish 
tales  partially  awaken.  Such  a  view  is  in  tone  with  the 
general  purpose  of  this  paper.  The  ogre  or  giant  who 
eats  children  is  thus  a  reality  to  them,  for  their  ancestors 
dwelt  for  unnumbered  centuries  among  such  fearful 
possibilities.  The  very  character  of  women,  with  their 
powerful,  but  half-hidden,  insistence  on  success,  could 
thus  perhaps  be  traced,  without  the  idea  seeming  over- 
fantastic,  to  the  times  of  ancient  famine  when  their 
children  had,  perhaps,  to  fear  most  their  natural  pro- 
tector, even,  it  may  be,  the  mother  herself.  It  is,  indeed, 
far  from  unlikely  that  it  was  the  women  who  urged  on 
their  father  and  husband  to  the  capture  and  slaughter 
of  his  enemies,  and  his  own  fear,  as  I  hope  to  show,  may 
be  held  up  as  the  one  great  cause  of  his  sullen  co-operation 
with  his  sons  in  such  expeditions,  enforced  and  enjoined 
upon  him,  though  it  may  have  been,  by  some  favourite 
woman  who  was  apprehensive  of  disaster  to  her  young 
offspring. 

To  return  from  these  relevant  deductions  to  the 
parental  jealousy  complex  still  showing  itself  in  modern 
times,  it  seems  that  many  such  ancient  social  states  must 
have  perpetuated  themselves  in  mental  complexes  which 
still  influence  human  action.  They  are  but  examples 
of  the  ceaseless  working  of  energy  ever  and  ever  in  weaker 


158 

but  more  delicate  structures.  So,  in  the  growth  of  the 
nervous  system,  embryonic  cells,  capable  of  development 
into  muscle  cells  which  use  great  energy,  were,  if  we  may 
use  the  metaphor  in  physiology,  sublimated  into  nerve 
cells,  which  consume  so  little  that  it  cannot  be  measured 
by  any  means  yet  known  to  us.  But,  just  as  we  know 
that  neurons  arose  from  ruder  and  more  energy-con- 
suming structures,  we  can  infer  that,  though  the  finer 
and  more  delicate  instincts  of  modern  man  were  developed 
from  rude  and  brutal  ones,  they  still  retain  marks  of  their 
origin.  Nor  need  we  be  surprised  to  find  even  now  in 
such  a  lowly  organism  as  society,  which  lies  far  down 
the  developmental  scale,  obvious  or  gross  indications  of 
their  origin.  With  this  support,  and  the  coincidence  of 
Atkinson's  views  with  those  otherwise  deduced,  some 
progress  may  be  made  in  the  consideration  of  the  con- 
ditions and  factors  which  changed  the  ancient  typical 
family  of  the  father,  his  wives  and  daughters,  and  the 
children  of  both,  into  the  tribe.  In  such  an  investigation 
it  will  not  be  necessary  to  go  into  later  developments, 
such  as  matriarchy,  which  were  probably  due  to  special, 
perhaps  local,  causes. 

It  is  the  common  accepted  opinion  that  tribes  grew 
directly  from  the  family  which  co-operated  as  an  ever- 
enlarging  unit,  and  afterwards  subdivided.  Such  a  view 
as  much  ignores  the  political  phenomena  of  history,  even 
of  to-day,  as  it  does  the  many  sidelights  which  ancient 
custom  throws  upon  the  processes  in  question.  When 
any  opinion  is  based  upon  little  evidence  it  often  turns 
out  that  the  effect  is  mistaken  for  the  cause,  or  the  cause 
for  the  effect.  It  may,  perhaps,  be  shown  that  some- 
thing like  this  has  occurred  in  the  conclusions  based  upon 
the  classificatory  system  of  relationship  and  inter-tribal 


THE  CANNIBAL  IN  EVOLUTION  159 

customs,  known  chiefly  to  us  by  what  is  seen  among  the 
Australian  aborigines.  In  order  to  show  as  clearly  as 
possible  what  the  orthodox  view  seems  to  be,  I  may  quote 
Frazer  (Folklore  in  the  Old  Testament).  After  speaking 
of  the  exogamous  classes  of  a  tribe  as  always  two,  four, 
or  eight,  but  never  an  odd  number,  he  says  :  "  This 
suggests,  what  all  the  evidence  tends  to  confirm,  that  these 
various  groups  have  been  produced  by  the  deliberate 
and  repeated  bisection  of  a  community,  first  into  two, 
then  into  four,  and  finally  into  eight  exogamous  and 
intermarrying  groups  or  classes,  for  no  one,  so  far  as  I 
know,  has  yet  ventured  to  maintain  that  society  is  subject 
to  a  physical  law,  in  virtue  of  which  communities,  like 
crystals,  tend  automatically  and  unconsciously  to  in- 
tegrate or  disintegrate,  along  rigid  mathematical  lines, 
into  exactly  symmetrical  units.  .  .  .  The  evidence  points 
to  the  conclusion  that  the  dual  organization  or  division 
of  a  community  into  two  exogamous  and  intermarrying 
classes  was  introduced  for  the  purpose  of  preventing  the 
marriage  of  brothers  with  sisters." 

Leaving  aside  for  a  moment  the  concluding  sentence 
of  this  judgment  with  the  remark  that  it  might  just  as 
well  be  argued  that  the  Table  of  Affinities  was  introduced 
to  prevent  the  marriage  of  a  deceased  wife's  sister  to  her 
brother-in-law,  and  noting  that  abstract  ideas,  such  as 
incest,  must  follow,  not  precede,  practice  grown  into 
rigid  "  moral  "  custom,  it  may  be  remarked  that  if  the 
inheritance  of  Mendelian  characters  follows  exactly  upon 
the  laws  of  probability,  we  may  reasonably  assume  that 
physical  laws,  however  altered  from  their  primal  sim- 
plicity, rule  in  all  departments  or  planes  of  life.  The 
words  "  deliberate  and  repeated  "  in  the  above  paragraph 
certainly  call  for  scrutiny.  As  we  observe  that  all  political 


160          WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

integration,  or  its  opposite,  follows  inevitably  upon  causes 
which  can  be  analysed  into  physical  elements,  racial, 
geographical,  or  economic,  and  that  the  element  of 
deliberate  purpose  imagined  to  exist  in  politicians  is  the 
final  result  of  the  thrust  of  the  energy  behind  them  which 
they  voice,  it  seems  hardly  likely  that  such  action  can  be 
attributed  to  the  prehistoric  tribes  of  Australia.  As  I 
happen  to  know  them  I  am  far  from  underrating  their 
intelligence,  which,  taking  into  consideration  their  con- 
ditions, is  far  higher  than  is  generally  supposed;  but  to 
believe  them  capable  of  performing  such  a  moral  and 
political  feat  as  Frazer  suggests  is  to  outrage  all  prob- 
ability. Communities  are  certainly  not  like  crystals, 
and  the  importation  of  such  a  simile  is  in  the  nature  of  a 
rhetorical  argument,  which  assumes  in  an  opponent  opinions 
to  which  he  would  never  subscribe.  But  quite  indepen- 
dent of  any  conclusion  which,  as  its  basis,  takes  for  granted 
the  facts  of  division,  and  then  argues  that  it  must  have 
been  deliberate,  there  is  the  ignored  hypothesis  that 
division  never  took  place  at  all,  but  that  what  did  occur 
was  aggregation  or  integration.  Since  I  put  aside  as 
untenable  on  the  face  of  it,  in  view  of  our  knowledge  of 
the  working  of  the  human  brain  shown  in  the  descent 
and  progression  of  abstract  notions,  the  theory  that 
incest,  as  horrible  or  even  undesirable  on  some  real  or 
fancied  ground  of  eugenics  or  innate  morality,  can  have 
anything  to  do  with  such  phenomena,  and  that  therefore 
division  is  much  more  than  exceedingly  unlikely,  we  are 
forced  to  consider  whether,  on  a  totally  opposite  hypothesis, 
political  integration  did  not  take  place  for  reasons  which 
may  be  discovered,  or  at  least  suggested,  by  considering 
facts  it  explains,  or  by  parallels  in  the  history  of  our  own 
or  other  countries.  Such  facts  and  such  parallels  are 


THE  CANNIBAL  IN  EVOLUTION  161 

easily  discoverable,  and  as  regards  the  last  any  European 
war  has  shown  that  pressure  of  circumstances  tends  to 
integration,  often  temporary,  but  sometimes  permanent. 
An  alliance,  in  the  face  of  danger  between  races  often 
deeply  opposed  through  the  operation  of  racial,  geo- 
graphical, or  economic  factors,  if  both  are  exposed  to  a 
common  danger,  is  obviously  of  common  occurrence. 
In  such  conditions  ancient  differences  are  hastily  com- 
posed, compromised,  or  postponed,  and  a  united  front  is 
shown  to  the  enemy.  These  facts  are  too  common  and 
intelligible  to  need  insistence ;  but  it  may  be  pointed  out 
that  on  final  analysis  the  like  are  in  all  essentials  ex- 
hibited in  the  enforced  behaviour  of  animals.  The  dogs 
of  a  village  which  are  usually  hostile  to  each  other  will 
unite  to  attack  an  invading  dog.  Groups  of  cattle  which 
never  graze  together  will  ring  round  a  centre  and  oppose 
together  a  prowling  beast  of  prey.  Many  more  instances 
might  be  cited;  but  the  study  of  history  itself  is  more 
than  sufficient  to  show  that  union  is  never  voluntary,  but 
always  enforced,  while  the  fundamental  hostility  of  groups 
is  still  seen  even  in  English  village  communities,  which 
fight  when  they  meet,  or  enliven  their  hours  of  ease  with 
jests  at  the  expense  of  their  neighbours,  though  they 
become,  upon  national  stress,  patriots  and  friends.  But 
as  there  is  no  need  to  labour  this  point,  it  may  be  asked 
whether  the  hypothesis  that  the  classificatory  system  of 
relationship  and  marriage,  remnants  of  which  are  visible 
in  all  nations,  cannot  be  explained  by  enforced  integration 
rather  than  by  division.  Such  an  explanation  will  enable 
us  to  understand  and  classify  many  hitherto  inexplicable 
and  obscure  phenomena  in  tribal  organization,  custom, 
and  morality. 

Since  anthropologists,  or  those  interested  in  anthro- 
ii 


162          WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

pology,  must  be  more  or  less  familiar  with  the  facts  of 
cannibalism,  there  is  no  need  to  enter  into  a  prolonged 
enumeration  of  its  phenomena  which  are  not  yet  co- 
ordinated. In  preference  to  otiose  repetition  I  shall 
therefore  examine  a  few  of  the  more  remarkable  customs 
connected  with  anthropophagism,  for,  if  any  solution  can 
be  obtained  of  them,  many,  if  not  all,  of  the  remaining 
details  will  fall  into  their  place  automatically.  Premising, 
then,  that  it  is  admitted  there  is  sufficient  evidence  to 
assume  provisionally  that  cannibalism  is  a  stage  through 
which  early  mankind  has  passed,  it  may  be  asked  how  it  is 
that  in  certain  Australian  tribes,  such  as  the  Binbinga, 
the  two  classes  eat,  not  their  own,  but  each  other's  dead. 
In  many  other  cases,  according  to  Spencer  and  Gillen,  it  is 
suspected  that  the  same  custom  obtains.  It  seems,  how- 
ever, as  might  have  been  prophesied,  that  those  who  are 
eaten  are  never,  or  very  rarely,  of  the  same  totems  as  those 
who  eat  them.  Such  a  custom  is  totally  unintelligible  on 
the  division  theory,  and  remains,  as  it  were,  a  mere  morbid 
degeneration  such  as  some  see  in  all  cannibalism.  Although 
many  variations  in  man-eating  must  inevitably  occur  as 
totemism  and  tribal  organization  decay,  what  is  to  be 
sought  is  the  origin  of  this  peculiar  custom,  and  if  any 
hypothesis  suggests  it,  the  explanation  should  have  solid 
foundations. 

If  the  original  patriarchal  family  was  such,  or  nearly 
such,  as  Atkinson  pictured  it,  and  as  I  myself  drew  it,  it 
can  be  seen  how  the  single  one-class,  and  single-totemed, 
group  came  into  being.  As  said  before,  there  is  no  need 
to  follow  Atkinson  in  his  hypothesis  that  maternal  love 
overcame  the  hostility  of  the  brutal  father  and  chief,  for 
in  such  times  and  conditions  as  those  which  made  the 
environment  of  nascent  mankind,  it  is  safer  to  infer  that 


THE  CANNIBAL  IN  EVOLUTION  163 

the  changes  were  the  result  of  stress  of  circumstance  rather 
than  of  instincts,  however  beautiful,  which  in  all  primitive 
peoples  tend  to  exert  less  and  less  power  as  the  offspring 
become  able  to  take  care  of  themselves.  In  conditions, 
which  even  for  the  partially  protected  female  were  such 
as  must  have  employed  all  her  energy  to  live,  they  would 
have  had  little  force. 

Although  the  explanation  of  the  past  by  what  occurs 
now  is  sound  in  all  sciences,  such  an  instrument  of  discovery, 
when  it  uses  not  permanent  physical  causes,  like  those 
seen  in  geology,  but  evolved  and  evolving  multiform  factors 
such  as  the  instincts,  needs  some  caution.  While  the 
purely  self-regarding  and  brutal  instincts  still  seen  in 
many  must  even  so  be  regarded  as  modified  favourably 
during  social  evolution,  it  may  be  assumed  that  the  more 
altruistic  were  in  their  origin  less  worthy  of  admiration 
than  they  seem  now.  It  is  therefore  more  probable  that 
outside  stress,  rather  than  maternally  introduced  modi- 
fications, conditioned  the  changes  by  which  the  sons  were 
permitted  to  stay  in  some  sort  of  growing  communion 
with  their  parents,  although  avoidance  was  still  strict,  and 
exogamy,  or  marriage  by  capture,  from  other  nascent 
groups  or  tribes,  absolutely  obligatory. 

With  the  existence  of  families  in  such  proximity  as 
permitted  wife  capture  it  follows  that,  owing  to  the  very 
custom  of  capture,  some  kind  of  relationship  should  have 
grown  up.  Even  if  the  capture  of  wives  were  associated 
at  other  times  with  the  capture  of  prisoners,  or  carrying  off 
the  dead  for  food,  there  would  assuredly  be  intervals  of 
peace  and  comparative  amity  in  seasons  of  plentiful  game. 
Although  such  friendly  relations  must  have  been  slight 
they  would  certainly  be  stronger  than  those  with  other 
and  remoter  groups  with  whom  no  intermarriage  was 


164         WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

possible,  and  who  were  at  all  times  regarded  purely  as 
enemies.  It  is  very  interesting  to  note  that  though  Maine 
obviously  knew  nothing  of  the  Australian  classificatory 
system  he  yet  remarks :  "  The  history  of  political  ideas 
begins,  in  fact,  with  the  assumption  that  kinship  in  blood 
is  the  sole  possible  ground  of  community  in  political 
functions  ;  nor  is  there  any  of  those  subversions  of  feeling 
which  we  term  emphatically  revolutions,  so  startling  and 
so  complete  as  the  change  which  is  accomplished  when 
some  other  principle,  such  as  that,  for  instance,  of  local 
contiguity,  establishes  itself  for  the  first  time  as  a  basis 
of  common  political  action.  .  .  .  The  earliest  and  most 
extensively  employed  of  legal  fictions  was  that  which  per- 
mitted family  relations  to  be  established  artificially,  and 
there  is  none  to  which  I  conceive  mankind  to  be  more 
deeply  indebted "  (H.  S.  Maine,  Ancient  Law,  1905, 
pp.  129,  130).  It  may  be  noted,  of  course,  that  the  two 
groups,  which  I  conceive  as  becoming  one  tribe  under 
external  pressure,  are  locally  contiguous  and  obviously 
blood  relations,  however  bitterly  hostile.  If  during  a  period 
of  scarcity,  distant  and  dreaded  foes  made  an  incursion 
into  territory  in  which  the  less  hostile  groups  were  situated, 
there  would  be  the  strongest  motive  possible  for  at  least  a 
temporary  alliance.  If  it  is  objected  that  the  inter-group 
relations  of  marriage  would  not  compensate  for  the  hatred 
aroused  by  cannibalism,  it  must  be  remembered,  ex  hypo- 
thesi,  that  this  was  a  state  of  things  perfectly  customary, 
and  not  in  any  sense  outrageous.  There  was  then  no  such 
thing  as  a  moral  horror  of  the  practice.  If  such  an  alliance 
took  place,  and  was  partially  successful,  it  would  tend  to 
continue,  especially  if  the  remodelling  stress  of  the  more 
hated  foe  still  remained  as  fear  "  in  being."  It  is  natural 
enough  to  deduce  from  this  that  such  a  state  of  things 


THE  CANNIBAL  IN  EVOLUTION  165 

would  necessarily  alter  cannibalism  between  the  allied 
groups,  while  necessity,  combined  with  customary  habit, 
would  end  in  the  practice  of  eating  each  other's  dead, 
rather  than  in  a  continuance  of  former  customs.  On  this 
hypothesis  such  habits  as  those  of  the  Binbinga  are  per- 
fectly intelligible  ;  it  is  seen  how  they  came  about,  and, 
by  customary  inertia,  were  continued.  Although  there  is 
no  necessity  to  enter  into  the  vexed  question  of  totemism, 
it  may  be  assumed  that  in  each  familial  group  there  was 
already  some  such  name  badge,  whatever  its  origin  and 
whatever  it  may  have  developed  into  later,  when  magic, 
myth,  and  tradition  moulded  and  welded  the  tribe  into  its 
later  form.  There  would  be  then  a  tribe  of  two  classes, 
mutually  exogamous,  each  class  with  a  totem.  And  if 
such  a  hypothesis  is  admitted  as  possible,  then  on  further 
pressure  of  war,  induced  as  war  practically  always  is  by 
economic  conditions,  however  much  disguised  in  modern 
times,  the  transition  from  a  two-class  tribe  to  a  four-  or 
eight-class  tribe  actually  explains  itself.  There  would  be 
in  the  latter  case  eight  totem  classes,  whose  ancient  law 
sanctioned  intermarriage  with  one  other  totem  class  only, 
while  any  intercourse  between  the  rest  of  the  classes,  though 
at  first  conditioned  mainly  by  jealousy,  would  gradually 
become  tribal  morality,  and  a  safeguard  to  tribal  unity. 

On  this  hypothesis  there  is  no  compulsion  to  posit 
advanced  abstract  notions  as  a  driving  force,  a  conception 
contrary  to  logic  and  the  nature  of  language  as  well  as  to 
the  established  fact  that  progression  is  from  the  concrete 
to  the  abstract,  and  not  vice  versa.  Moreover  such  a  theory, 
for  if  it  unravels  the  meaning  of  so  difficult  a  case  as  that 
of  the  Binbinga  it  becomes  more  than  a  hypothesis,  is  in 
accordance  with  processes  to-day,  while  it  explains  modern 
sex  morality  as  the  last,  but  assuredly  not  enduring, 


166          WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

remains  of  a  tremendous  and  rigid  code  whose  sanction 
was  not  merely  the  fear  of  slander  or  social  ostracism, 
but  that  of  death. 

However  disagreeable  the  conclusion  may  seem  to  many, 
even  the  positive  evidence  obtainable  is  suggestive  of 
universal  cannibalism.  The  fact  that  it  still  exists  in 
many  quarters  of  the  globe,  and  may  be  returned  to  any- 
where under  stress,  vastly  strengthens  such  evidence. 
Abhorrent  as  it  is  to  the  modern  mind,  no  one  knows  what 
he  will  do  on  occasions  of  which  he  has  no  experience.  I 
once  camped  in  the  Selkirks,  in  British  Columbia,  with 
an  old  prospector  known  as  the  Man-Eater,  because,  when 
snowed-up  and  starving  in  the  mountains,  he  had  dug  up 
his  partner's  frozen  body,  which  he  had  previously  buried. 
The  potential  cannibal  may  in  fact  exist  in  the  most  re- 
fined, and  it  is  not  illegitimate  to  conclude  that  the  habit 
was  once  universal,  and  resulted  in  continued  economic 
war.  To  such  factors  may  be  attributed  the  continual 
coalescence  of  many  hostile  tribes,  who  compromised 
again  and  yet  again  with  enemy  after  enemy,  and  in  the 
process  established  the  earlier  real  societies,  the  germs  of 
nations  and  of  races.  The  unknown  is  still  the  horrible, 
and  it  was  better  to  make  friends  with  tribes  near  at  hand 
whose  customs  were  at  least  familiar,  than  to  be  conquered 
by  dreadful  far-off  people,  who  might  overthrow  law  and 
lay  morality  in  the  dust.  What  morals,  indeed,  were  to  be 
expected  from  such  ?  Magic  itself  might  be  in  danger  ! 

From  a  purely  physiological  point  of  view  it  may  be 
suggested  that  as  character  is  modified  or  intensified  by 
special  foods,  containing  special  catalysts  or  toxins  which 
act  as  determinants,  a  custom  like  cannibalism  may  have 
altered  human  character  itself  by  ensuring  a  common 
average  stock  of  such  determining  elements.  We  are 


THE  CANNIBAL  IN  EVOLUTION  167 

even  yet  wholly  ignorant  of  the  evolutionary  effects  of 
acute  diseases  which  are  recovered  from ;  but  it  cannot 
be  imagined  they  have  none.  Their  toxins  by  eventually 
producing  immunity  must  certainly  be  a  factor  of  change 
in  a  race,  as  they  must  be  factors  in  the  after  life  of  the 
individual.  It  may  be  said  that  when  tuberculosis  was 
first  active  as  a  destructive  and  modifying  agent,  prob- 
ably at  the  beginning  of  the  pastoral  ages  when  man 
first  domesticated  cattle,  a  very  powerful  factor  of  physical 
and  cerebral  change  was  introduced.  If  that  is  even 
remotely  possible,  it  cannot  be  believed  that  cannibalism 
had  not  many  obscure  side  effects,  over  and  above  that 
of  intensifying  the  struggle  for  existence. 

Organized  war  in  itself,  though  it  is  a  subject  which 
has  employed  so  many  minds,  has  rarely  been  considered 
as  a  very  ancient  factor  in  evolution.  We  may  take  it  for 
granted  that  it  did  not  originate  in  the  mere  love  of  fighting. 
The  joy  of  conflict  is  assuredly  a  by-product  of  superfluous 
energy,  and  even  now  much  rarer  than  is  assumed  in 
romance.  Yet  if  the  temporary  sullen  alliance  of  some 
early  prehistoric  men,  in  periods  possibly  late  Miocene 
in  date,  was  the  very  beginning  of  tribal  unity,  and  if  their 
joint  efforts  procured  success  against  a  common  enemy 
of  both,  we  are  entitled  to  call  such  an  expedition  the 
very  beginning  of  organized  war,  as  distinguished  from 
solitary  hunting,  and  the  origin  of  immense  evolutionary 
changes.  So  far  as  I  am  aware,  though  man's  intellectual 
advance  has  been  frequently  attributed  to  his  hunting 
proclivities,  as  calling  forth  qualities  advantageous  to 
him  who  was  successful,  and  thus  aiding  his  survival, 
while  inter-tribal  warfare  is  no  doubt  recognized  as  a  factor 
of  his  progress,  the  reasons  usually  assigned  for  such  war- 
fare are  the  tolerably  obvious  ones  still  displayed  among 


168         WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

savage  peoples  as  regards  hunting  areas.  A  French  writer, 
Toussenel,  who  has  discoursed  on  the  part  played  by  dogs 
as  co-hunters  with  man,  has,  indeed,  attributed  the  origin  of 
cannibalism  to  a  by-effect  of  the  chase.  He  says  (L 'Esprit 
des  Betes,  1847)  :  "  U  est  evident  que  1'anthropophagie 
est  nee  d'une  excessive  fringale  combinee  avec  1'habitude 
du  regime  du  viande.  II  arriva  que  deux  hordes  de  chas- 
seurs se  recontrerent  a  la  poursuite  du  meme  animal,  un 
jour  que  la  proie  etait  rare  and  que  la  faim  mugissait  dans 
leur  entrailles,  et  il  eut  guerre  entre  elles.  On  se  battit, 
on  se  tua  et  les  cadavres  de  vaincus  remplacerent  natur- 
ellement  au  foyers  des  vainqueurs  les  cadavres  du  gibier 
absent."  Such  opinions  may,  perhaps,  be  somewhat 
suggestive,  but  the  attribution  of  cannibalism  to  the  merest 
accident  is  most  certainly  not  sound.  Toussenel  thought 
that  it  followed  tribal  organization  and  hunting  in  parties  ; 
but  such  organization  has  to  be  accounted  for,  not  assumed 
as  natural.  Nor  can  we  take  it  for  granted  that  warfare 
arose  of  itself  without  some  very  definite  and  powerful 
cause  among  our  very  early  ancestors,  for  though  social 
animals  fight  among  themselves,  they  never  organize 
against  other  groups  of  the  same  species.  Real  organiza- 
tion for  warfare,  therefore,  seems  peculiar  to  man  and  some 
ants  who  have  reached  a  very  high  stage  as  societies  with 
great  differentiation  of  function.  Although  imagination 
has  a  great  part  to  play  in  speculation,  when  explanation 
is  wanting  and  data  are  necessarily  few  such  hypotheses 
as  are  invented  must  at  least  account  for  fundamental 
facts,  and  the  view  that  tribal  organization  preceded 
cannibalism  practically  leaves  out  of  account  such  pheno- 
mena as  those  of  the  Binbinga  and  others,  which  were 
probably  as  unknown  to  Toussenel  as  they  seem  to  be  to 
many  modern  writers  on  allied  subjects. 


THE  CANNIBAL  IN  EVOLUTION  169 

It  has  been  argued  by  Harry  Campbell  and  others, 
as  I  myself  argued  twenty-five  years  ago,  that  inter-tribal 
warfare,  in  which  all  members  of  the  tribe  were  engaged, 
must  have  meant  the  rapid  elimination  of  fools  and  the 
unfit ;  but  so  far  it  seems  that  it  has  not  been  pointed  out 
that  the  acts  of  war,  whether  tactical  or  strategic,  tend 
to  develop  all  the  logical  and  mental  faculties  of  man. 
Every  human  faculty  has  assuredly  been  called  into  exist- 
ence by  the  stimulation  of  the  environment.  It  does  not 
follow  that  every  stimulation  has  brought  out  power  to 
deal  directly  with  the  situation.  But  it  has  certainly 
developed  powers  of  avoiding  possible  evil  results,  thus 
moulding  the  race  in  another  way.  Certainly  no  faculty 
can  be  conceived  existing  without  need  unless  there  is 
in  existence  excess  energy  not  wanted  for  self-  or  race- 
preservation.  For  there  are  undoubtedly  developments 
not  in  themselves  really  useful.  We  cannot  logically 
attribute  the  gorgeous  colouring  of  the  Trochilidas  purely 
to  sex  selection,  when  we  see  the  less  gorgeous  species  still 
highly  adorned.  We  are  forced  to  look  on  such  super- 
coloration  as  the  result  of  excess  energy  in  birds  already 
so  energetic  as  to  be  almost  beyond  the  ordinary  accidents 
of  bird  life,  while  they  live  on  the  most  assimilable  form 
of  carbohydrate.  Such  excess  of  adornment  may  in  the 
end  become  harmful  to  them,  as  it  has  done  since  debauched 
destructive  energy  in  rich  women  has  demanded  their 
sacrifice  for  adornment.  But  if  all  useful  faculties  in 
man,  or  any  animal,  must  have  been  developed  by  the 
stimulation  of  the  environment  we  can,  I  think,  conceive 
no  such  stimulation  as  that  of  individual,  group,  and  tribal 
warfare  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  the  food  which  is  the 
most  nourishing,  and  the  most  easily  digestible  of  all. 
Since  it  has  already  been  humanized,  it  calls  for  less  energy 


170         WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

to  transform  it  into  body-building  or  energizing  factors. 
The  very  belief  that  eating  other  warriors  gave  the  vic- 
torious their  qualities,  may  easily  enough  have  developed 
from  the  fact  that  such  a  meal  showed  a  marked  difference 
in  results  from  those  experienced  with  other  foods.  But 
the  main  point  to  bear  in  mind  is  that  warfare  with  objects 
of  this  kind  in  view  must  have  had  not  only  very  definite 
results  in  cerebral  growth,  but  also  very  rapid  ones.  After 
a  long  period  in  which  man  was,  perhaps,  little  more 
developed  than  Pithecantheopus  erectus,  such  enforced 
organization,  in  groups  which  could  develop  subordina- 
tion, and  respect  for  ability  in  leaders,  with  the  rapid 
concomitant  destruction  of  less  plastic  anthropoid  stocks 
of  all  kinds,  must  have  resulted  not  only  in  the  elimination 
of  most  of  the  ground  apes,  while  the  monkeys  were  able 
to  preserve  themselves,  but  also  in  a  period  of  rapid  pro- 
gression in  adaptability  and  cerebral  development.  Races 
may  have  arisen  perfectly  capable  of  slow  progression 
to  a  status  even  higher  than  that  of  modern  man,  but  if 
they  lacked  the  enforced  cohesion  of  those  who  had  eaten 
up  their  hunting  areas,  and  were  finally  driven  into  united 
internecine  warfare  to  obtain  food,  or  prisoners  who  could 
be  slaves  or  food  as  necessity  dictated,  they  would  have 
had  no  more  chance  against  intrusive  voracious  hordes 
with  gross  simian  characteristics  than  Greece  had  against 
the  armies  of  Philip.  There  are  even  suggestions  in  what 
we  know  of  early  human  history  which  point,  however 
vaguely,  towards  such  unrecorded  tragedies. 

Among  them,  perhaps,  may  be  reckoned  that  of  the 
disappearance  of  such  a  species  of  humanity  as  Neander- 
thal man.  His  brain  capacity  of  about  1600  c.c.;  while 
that  of  modern  man  is,  say,  1400  c.c.,  is  even  more  superior 
than  it  seems  to  that  of  the  average  European  of  the 


THE  CANNIBAL  IN  EVOLUTION  171 

present  time,  as  his  average  height  was  less  (5'  4").  His 
inferior  stature  may,  perhaps,  have  been  compensated 
for  by  greater  weight,  so  that  the  portion  of  the  brain 
devoted  entirely  to  bodily  functions,  and  not  to  intellectual 
qualities,  may  be  rather  more  than  that  indicated.  Yet 
here  was  a  species  of  man,  distinct  from  our  own  type  by 
the  possession  of  simian  characters  which  are  not  ours,  and 
the  absence  of  some  which  we  still  retain,  who  had  a 
greater  brain  than  the  average  modern  man.  According 
to  Keith,  the  teeth  of  this  species  are  of  the  taurodont 
type  seen  in  herbivorous  or  graminivorous  animals.  "  On 
the  evidence  of  the  teeth  and  palate  one  is  inclined  to 
regard  Neanderthal  man  as  specially  adapted  to  live  on 
a  rough  vegetable  diet.  .  .  .  His  skill  as  a  flint  artizan 
shows  that  his  abilities  were  not  of  a  low  order.  He  had 
fire  at  his  command,  he  buried  his  dead,  he  had  a  dis- 
tinctive and  highly  evolved  form  of  culture."  In  spite 
of  this  culture,  and  the  structure  of  the  teeth,  it  is  said 
that  he  was  also  a  hunter,  which  is  held  to  be  proved  by 
the  remains  found  in  the  Krapina  cave.  He  has  indeed 
been  accused  of  cannibalism,  as  split  human  bones  were 
found  with  other  scattered  Neanderthal  bones  and  teeth. 
The  evidence  is  assuredly  not  altogether  convincing,  but 
it  excites  speculation,  especially  as  the  implements,  though 
not  typically  Mousterian,  certainly  suggest  that  culture. 
May  it  not  be  said  that  if  cannibalism  there  was,  it  must 
be  ascribed,  not  to  a  typically  vegetarian  race,  but  to 
the  contemporary  ancestors  of  modern  man,  who  have 
descendants  practising  it  ?  In  any  case,  whether  such 
a  hypothesis  is  regarded  as  mere  fancy  or  real  suggestion, 
the  fact  remains  that  a  powerful  and  highly  cultured 
race,  which  was  obviously  graminivorous  and  had  prob- 
ably reached  the  agricultural  stage,  with  a  cranial  capacity 


172         WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

not  possessed  by  every  philosopher  of  the  present  day, 
has  vanished  from  the  face  of  the  earth,  leaving  no 
descendants  and  few  traces  of  his  existence.  Such  a 
problem  cannot  be  disposed  of  easily.  At  the  least  it 
must  excite  the  suspicion  that  his  place  was  occupied  by 
the  ancestors  of  those  who  at  one  stage  of  civilization 
practised  cannibalism,  and  in  all  devoted  infinite  energy 
to  organized  warfare.  Vegetarianism  is  not  likely  to 
have  been  practised  by  those  with  teeth  not  peculiarly 
or  typically  adapted  to  such  food,  and  it  therefore  seems 
quite  possible  that  Neanderthal  man  was  wiped  out  by 
swarms  of  a  less  advanced  but  more  military  race  of 
cannibals.  These  speculations  have  at  any  rate  the 
support  afforded  by  such  factors  of  evolution  being  in 
action  even  now,  and  if  the  hypothesis  is  correct,  they 
must  have  been  operating  from  a  date  some  time  after 
the  anthropoid  stock  had  divided  into  the  lost  species 
and  that  which  even  yet  exists  and,  in  many  parts  of  the 
earth,  still  indulges  in  man-eating. 

When  considering  the  past  effects  of  war  upon  the 
human  races  it  may  be  urged  that  the  typical  soldier, 
even  now,  is  the  finest  type  of  all-round  man.  This 
will  no  doubt  seem  a  hard  saying  to  those  morbid 
intellectuals  who  overrate  conscious  mentation.  Never- 
theless, many  who  are  prejudiced  by  the  possession  of 
an  under-exercised  body,  and  an  over-exercised  cerebral 
cortex,  will  probably  agree  that  the  all-round  type  of  able 
and  athletic  man  is  the  finest  form  of  humanity.  Not 
a  few  of  those  who  belong  to  the  higher  intellectual  order 
must  often  lament  their  own  overgrowths  and  correlated 
incapacities  when  they  contemplate  his  simple,  healthy, 
and  beautiful  efficiency.  It  may  be  i~ne  that  progress 
did  not  stop  when  fighting  ceased  to  be  the  greatest  factor 


THE  CANNIBAL  IN  EVOLUTION  173 

in  evolution,  although,  judging  from  the  evidence  it  looks 
as  if  changes  were  more  socially  structural  than  cerebral. 
Yet  even  now  we  can  say  that  the  best  officers  in  a  good 
modern  army  belong  to  a  fine  order  of  compact,  sufficient 
intellect.  War  still  requires  that  equal  balance  of  the 
body  and  brain  which  characterizes  them,  although  they 
may  want  some  qualities  which  in  themselves  are  scarcely 
more  than  prophetic  of  possible  future  race  characteristics. 
It  is  not  necessary  to  go  deeply  into  cerebral  physio- 
logy or  psychology  to  see  that  war  required  the  develop- 
ment of  all  the  main  faculties  characterizing  the  human 
brain.  There  is  no  common  faculty  useful  in  life  which 
is  not  necessary  to  the  soldier  considered  only  as  such. 
War  is  a  great  intellectual  and  bodily  game,  in  which  the 
incomplete  man  goes  under.  The  soldier  has  to  reason, 
and  must  reason  rapidly,  his  intuitions  must  outrun  the 
processes  of  formal  thought.  To  say  so  by  no  means 
implies  that  he  should  be  acquainted  with  the  syllogistic 
skeleton  of  human  reasoning.  Men  argued  in  natural 
moods  before  scholastic  logic,  as  they  still  argue  without 
having  heard  of  it.  The  early  warriors  organized  brain 
tracts  which  grasped  more  and  more  factors  in  the  en- 
vironment ;  their  skill  and  their  salvation  depended  on 
new  and  ready  response  to  new  or  old  stimuli.  Such 
brain  faculties  are  capable  of  being  developed  and  organized 
in  a  measure  by  hunting,  but  hunting  alone,  as  we  under- 
stand it,  could  not  have  put  the  last  fine  edge  upon  the 
brain  as  a  weapon,  nor  would  it  have  eliminated  with  any 
rapidity  the  small-brained  races  which  were  incapable 
of  swift  variation.  Nothing  but  war  would  have  been 
so  likely  to  bring  out  all  those  qualities  which  reward 
skill,  quickness,  endurance,  foresight,  and  the  concentra- 
tion of  endeavour  with  the  crown  of  victory  and  the 


174         WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

inheritance  of  the  earth.  Thus  it  does  not  seem  a  vain 
imagination  or  a  mere  unsupported  hypothesis  to  consider 
the  early  warrior's  brain  as  the  type  from  which  all  our 
still  unstable  new  developments  have  naturally  grown. 
The  savage  who  was  most  a  savage,  who  was  the  fiercest, 
the  most  ruthless,  who  was  most  endowed  with  cunning, 
and  who  yet  had  a  faint  sense  of  loyalty  within  his  brain, 
which  made  him  capable  of  being  led  or  leading  in  his 
turn,  was  the  true  fountain  of  progress,  of  knowledge,  and 
ultimately  of  those  finer  cortical  growths  which  some 
metaphysicians  and  all  religionists  prefer  to  call  "  the 
soul."  We  must  look  to  the  lowest  man-eating  tribes 
who  yet  remain  if  we  wish  to  see  ourselves  somewhat  as 
we  were  when  mankind  first  rose  from  the  Miocene  abyss. 

Though  these  conclusions  are  disagreeable  to  many, 
while  others  think  that  it  is  straining  an  hypothesis  beyond 
the  limits  of  elasticity  to  reach  them,  it  must  be  remembered 
that  like  objections  are  still  urged  against  conclusions,  as 
to  the  formation  of  human  individual  and  racial  cerebral 
characteristics,  reached  in  psycho-analysis.  These  militate 
against  curious  concepts,  such  as  Free  Will,  which  are 
peculiarly  dear  to  many,  while  they  show  that  the  origin 
of  some  of  the  sublimer  feelings  lies  deep  in  the  savage 
passions  of  self-regarding  instincts.  To  attribute  every- 
thing to  cannibalism,  without  complete  analysis  of  the 
way  it  operated,  would  be  indeed  a  strain,  but  if  it  can  be 
shown  with  plausibility  that  out  of  the  practice  of  war 
there  sprang,  whether  on  Darwinian  grounds  purely, 
or  on  those  which  suggest  that  direct  environmental 
adaptation  can  be  inherited,  such  higher  attributes  of  man 
as  foresight,  caution,  subordination,  respect  for  leader- 
ship, and  other's  mental  endowments,  while  the  whole 
basis  of  the  organizing  tribes  substituted  reason,  which  is 


THE  CANNIBAL  IN  EVOLUTION  175 

the  power  of  balancing  possibilities,  for  purely  savage 
instinctive  action,  we  have  a  right,  not  only  to  conclude 
that  cannibalism  was  an  immense,  even  the  greatest, 
factor  of  early  evolution,  but  that  we  are  no  more  justified 
in  regarding  it  with  peculiar  disfavour  than  if  we  dis- 
covered with  horror  that  the  singular  energy  in  doing 
good  of  some  saintly  woman  had  its  origin  in  frustrate, 
sublimated  sexual  passion. 

Moreover,  if  the  conclusions  arrived  at  in  the  chapter 
on  the  function  of  Repair  in  Evolution  have  any  weight, 
we  are  forced  to  assume  that  such  phenomena  as  failure 
and  repair  leading  to  favourable  variation  must  occur 
in  the  realm  of  anthropology  as  well  as  in  pathology  and 
physiology.  The  more  the  theory  is  examined  the  more 
universal  will  be  seen  its  operation,  so  that  at  last  it  seems 
legitimate  to  draw  the  conclusion  that  physiology  in  the 
sense  of  perfected  action  and  reaction  is  an  ideal  of  living 
structure,  and  no  sooner  seen  that  lost,  while  a  morbid 
or  semi-morbid  condition  due  to  over-stress  and  the 
reactions  of  repair,  is  the  true  norm  in  evolution.  If  this  is 
so,  and  few  capable  of  taking  a  scientific  and  philosophical 
view  of  society  as  now  seen  in  the  melting-pot  of  change, 
disaster,  repair,  and  again  disaster  and  new  trials  and  errors 
as  modifications  take  place  under  internal  and  external 
stresses  and  stimuli,  will  be  found  to  deny  it,  we  may  take 
it  for  granted  that  the  still  vaster  modifications  of  various 
species  of  humanity  in  the  ages  of  geologic  time  must  have 
exhibited  like  phenomena  on  a  lower  plane,  in  which  the 
furious  self-regarding  instincts  had  not  yet  been  changed, 
or  only  partly  changed,  into  some  of  the  higher  attributes 
of  man.  When  in  imagination  we  regard  such  possible 
factors  at  work,  the  picture  seems  one  of  unmitigated 
misery,  or  social  disease  and  disorder.  Yet  even  then  there 


176          WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

were  working  factors  making  blindly  for  balance  and  sym- 
metry, for  easy  action  rather  than  difficult,  for  peace 
rather  than  war.  Indeed,  the  most  appalling  comment 
to  be  made  on  such  a  state  of  nascent  society  is  not  that 
it  was  so  peculiarly  dreadful,  or  that  it  puts  a  strain  on 
the  imagination  to  conceive  it,  but  that  after  long  ages  we 
see  similar  factors  but  little  altered  still  at  their  work. 
Peace  conferences  have  their  ancient  analogues  and,  as 
great  diplomatists  argued  round  Pliocene  camp-fires, 
so,  when  Paris  itself  lies  under  the  sea,  other  diplomatists 
will  even  then  debate  on  ancient  premisses,  while 
idealistic,  contemporary  historians  throw  doubts  on  the 
recorded  savagery  of  extinct  Europeans. 

If  the  whole  of  this  volume  were  not  in  the  nature  of 
a  plea  for  the  use  of  the  imagination  in  science,  so  long  as 
it  is  controlled  by  ascertained  results  in  allied  branches 
of  learning,  I  might  have  hesitated  to  use  such  arguments 
or  illustrations.  But  when  there  are  problems  to  solve, 
in  which  few  if  any  direct  observations  can  be  made,  and 
in  which  documents  are  rare,  it  is  necessary  to  employ 
some  such  method  as  that  known  in  mathematics  as  the 
Inverse  Problem  of  Perturbations.  Uninterpreted  altera- 
tions in  the  orbit  of  one  or  more  planets  lead  to  the  dis- 
covery of  another  almost  beyond  the  reach  of  the  telescope. 
If,  indeed,  Neptune  had  never  been  seen,  the  facts  as  to 
its  orbit  and  distance  from  the  sun  would  have  been  almost 
certain.  Such  a  case  presents  striking  analogies  with 
investigation  into  prehistoric  times.  We  observe  the 
inexplicable  present,  and  infer  an  adequate  cause.  If  the 
present  view  suggested  no  more  than  a  possible  explana- 
tion of  the  remarkable  change  from  such  as  Pithecanth- 
ropus to  the  modern  type  of  brain  which,  following 
Keith,  I  believe  to  be  of  very  early  origin,  it  would,  at 


THE  CANNIBAL  IN  EVOLUTION  177 

least  be  something.  Yet  Keith  himself  says  :  "  Can  we 
conceive  that,  in  the  stretch  of  time  between  the  end  of 
the  Pliocene  and  the  middle  of  the  Pleistocene,  even  allow- 
ing two  or  three  hundred  thousand  years  for  that  space, 
the  brain  of  Pithecanthropus  could  have  evolved  into  the 
modern  human  form  ?  I  cannot  conceive  such  a  rapid 
rate  of  evolution."  While  by  no  means  of  the  opinion  that 
Pithecanthropus  was  a  human  ancestor,  for  it  appears 
far  more  likely  that  he  was  a  collateral  survival  if  pro- 
perly dated,  it  seems  to  me  that  by  the  operation  of  the 
combined  factors  suggested  such  a  rapid  change  might, 
and  indeed  must,  have  taken  place.  If  there  is  one  thing 
more  sure  than  another,  it  is  that  stability  of  type 
indicates  a  more  or  less  stable  environment.  From  the 
historic  view  changes  may  be  rapid,  while  from  the  physio- 
logical and  anthropological  standpoint  they  seem  too 
negligible  to  be  considered  moulding  influences.  That 
very  ancient  types  still  survive  is  not  really  a  relevant 
argument  against  a  rapid  critical  period  of  change,  unless 
we  can  show  that  such  a  static  condition  has  continued 
through  immense  physical  changes  of  the  environment. 
The  partially  obsolete  Darwinian  view  of  a  slow  aggregation 
of  minute  advantageous  spontaneous  variations  seems  still 
partly  responsible  for  the  opinion  that  change  must  neces- 
sarily be  slow.  But  in  many  states  of  matter  they  are  often 
rapid,  and  it  cannot  be  shown  definitely  that  evolution  is 
steady  and  continuous.  Like  the  colloids  of  protoplasm, 
on  which  all  life  finally  depends,  it  seems  to  have  critical 
periods.  Colloidal  substances  are  easily  influenced  by 
obscure  stimuli.  The  origin  of  life  as  a  sudden  rise  in  the 
organization  of  matter  may  have  depended  on  a  partic- 
ular instance  of  ionization  or  the  powerful  influence  of  a 
rare  accidental  catalyst.  Planck's  very  theory  of  Quanta 


178         WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

itself  suggests  sudden  steps  in  all  phenomena  what- 
soever, and  in  the  presence  of  such  a  protoplasmic  cerebral 
tool,  or  catalyst,  as  the  early  discovery  of  cannibalism,  I 
find  no  difficulty  whatever  in  considering  it  as  the  last 
great  cause  of  a  sudden  critical  change  in  man.  Alien  as 
such  methods  of  thought  may  seem  to  pure  specialists  in 
anthropology,  they  may  prove  suggestive  to  those  of  the 
opinion  that  analogous  phenomena  are  found  in  all  planes 
of  evolutionary  progress.  Universal  cannibalism  must  at 
the  least  be  accepted,  if  accepted  at  all,  as  a  possible  instru- 
ment of  rapid  critical  change,  seeing  that  both  as  an  elimi- 
nant  and  an  integrator  no  more  powerful  machinery  can  be 
imagined.  To  say  that  its  discovery  as  a  motive  for  tribal 
integration  may  have  been  the  work  of  some  solitary  old 
male  genius,  or  the  visionary  [glimpse,  by  some  extruded 
exceptionally  endowed  youth,  of  a  means  of  common 
safety,  imparted  by  him  to  his  young  brother  and  thence 
to  his  mother,  who  urged  it  on  her  man  whose  savage 
passions  were  already  failing,  may  seem  extravagant,  but 
the  notion  will  not  appear  so  absurd  if  we  remember  that 
the  thought  of  a  relatively  lofty  brain  is  often  the  heritage 
of  the  best  in  succeeding  generations,  the  common  property 
of  the  herd  in  those  that  succeed,  and  that  in  the  end  it 
may  be  indistingishable  from  criminal  and  atavistic  con- 
cepts. It  may,  and  must,  have  been  an  infraction  of 
custom,  but,  though  for  the  ordinary  man  in  any  era  there 
is  little  to  choose  between  the  habitual  criminal  and  the 
habitual  genius,  necessity  reinforced  the  suggestion,  and 
made  havoc  of  established  law.  Yet  such  new  co-ordination 
would  not  be  carried  to  its  logical  conclusion  without  the 
revolt  of  the  more  conservative  element.  It  is,  indeed, 
a  peculiar  and  somewhat  melancholy  commentary  on  the 
perpetually  recurring  phenomena  of  social  and  human 


THE  CANNIBAL  IN  EVOLUTION  179 

advance  to  view  in  imagination  many  a  rigid  and  ethically- 
set  incestuous  solitary  male  retiring  indignantly  before 
the  flood  of  immoral  innovation  into  the  darkest  backwoods 
of  the  primeval  forest.  Had  he  been  capable  of  such 
reasoning,  he  would  have  regarded  the  processes  which  led  to 
progress  and  the  evolution  of  the  brain  man  now  possesses 
as  essentially  anarchic,  morbid,  and  diseased,  just  as  the 
over-conservative  mind  of  modern  times  regards  the  rise 
of  new  powers  and  processes  in  social  polity  as  tending  to 
the  death  of  the  organism  of  which  it  is  a  static  and  satisfied 
part.  It  is,  then,  no  fanciful  analogy  which  suggests  that 
politics  are  but  a  chapter  in  anthropology,  and  that  the 
processes  seen  in  both  are  mutually  illuminating.  We  may 
infer  that  as  such  new  forces  exhaust  themselves  in  altered 
or  adapted  or  entirely  new  structures,  which  in  their  turn 
must  pass  away,  cannibalism  itself  died  out  among  the  races 
we  call  civilized  when  organization  had  reached  such  a 
pitch  that  the  labours  of  pastoralism  or  agriculture  pro- 
mised earlier  and  better  results  than  predatory  war.  A 
balance  of  power,  continually  upset  and  restored,  came  into 
existence,  and  the  developing  germ  of  international  law 
or  custom  took  on  new  forms.  We  can  thus  conceive 
Grotius  and  his  followers  as  the  lineal  descendants  of  the 
first  ancient  inter-group  messengers,  or  at  the  least  derived 
from  the  calmer  philosophers  at  the  first  peace  conference 

• 

ever  held  about  some  long-extinguished  camp-fire  over 
which  the  retreating  ice  of  successive  glacial  epochs  has 
poured  its  floods. 

It  seems  not  altogether  impossible  that  this  hypothesis 
may  be  confirmed  by  the  aid  of  another  branch  of  science. 
Some  years  ago  it  was  suggested  by  an  eminent  zoologist, 
one  of  the  few  to  whom  knowledge  has  not  meant  special- 
ism, that  the  evolution  of  Tcenia  solium  supported  such 


180          WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

views.  Since  it  can  hardly  be  supposed  that  this  parasite 
has  reached  its  present  perfect  adaptation  within  the 
period  which  has  elapsed  since  the  domestication  of  the 
pig,  which  implies  a  settled  or,  certainly,  less  migratory 
state  of  civilization,  it  follows  that  the  cystic  form  of 
Tcenia  must  have  alternated  with  the  adult  form  in  the 
one  other  form  of  life  in  which  such  a  stage  is  possible, 
that  is  to  say,  in  man  himself.  As  I  have  not  applied  myself 
to  the  study  of  helminthology  it  was  impossible  for  me  to 
say  whether  this  view  was  sound  or  not,  and  as  the 
advocate  of  the  hypothesis  did  not  reprint  the  paper,  I 
had  an  application  made  to  him  for  his  considered  opinion. 
When  this  was  not  vouchsafed  I  requested  information 
from  a  well-known  helminthologist,  who  replied  that  he 
himself  knew  nothing  of  the  subject,  and  therefore  referred 
me  to  another  authority,  who  in  his  turn  gave  me  the 
name  of  yet  another,  who  finally  referred  me  to  the  first. 
It  seems  that,  whatever  is  known  of  these  parasites, 
their  evolution  has  not  yet  been  properly  considered, 
and  it  may  yet  appear  that  it  proves  the  universal  and 
long-continued  practice  of  anthropophagy. 

On  recapitulating  the  arguments  advanced,  though 
each  one  separately  may  appear  unconvincing  and  even 
capable  of  rebuttal,  it  seems  that  when  viewed  together 
they  amount  to  much  more  than  might  have  been 
expected.  Even  a  partial  enumeration  of  the  points 
discussed  may  suggest  reasonable  explanation  of  the 
following  difficulties  : 

1.  The  classificatory  system  of  relationship. 

2.  The    custom    of    avoidance    and    the    sex-coldness 
among  brothers  and  sisters. 

3.  The    not    uncommon     modern      phenomenon     of 
parental  jealousy. 


THE  CANNIBAL  IN  EVOLUTION  181 

4.  The  widespread    modern    practice  of  cannibalism 
in  all  its  various  forms,  food-seeking,  honorific,  and  re- 
ligious, etc.  etc. 

5.  The  peculiar  practice  of  endo-anthropophagy  which 
consists  in  each  class  of  a  tribe  eating  the  dead  of  the 
other  class. 

6.  The   rapid  change  in   cranial  form   and   capacity 
during  a  comparatively  short  time. 

7.  The  development  of  the  basal  logical  faculties  of 
man. 

8.  The  disappearance  of  a  big-brained  and  probably 
agricultural   species   of   humanity   such   as   Neanderthal 
man,  and  the  facts  observed  at  Krapina. 

9.  The  evolutionary  functions  of  war. 

10.  The   nature   of   hidden   racial   complexes  strictly 
analogous  with  those  observed  in  individuals. 

REFERENCES. 

CAMPBELL,  HARRY. — "  Biological  Aspects  of  Warfare,"  Lancet, 
London,  Sept.  15,  1917 ;  and  "  Man's  Mental  Evolution, 
Past  and  Future,"  ibid.,  London,  1913. 

FRASER,  Sir  J.  G. — "Totemism  and  Exogamy." 

KEITH,  ARTHUR.— "Antiquity  of  Man,"  1916. 

MAINE,  Sir  H.  S. — "Ancient  Law"  (ed.  Pollock),  1903. 

SPENCER  and  GILLEN. — "  Native  Tribes  of  Central  Australia." 

TOUSSENEL. — "L'Esprit  des  Betes,"  1847. 


CHAPTER   VII 

HEREDITY  AND  ENVIRONMENT 

IN  science  one  of  the  most  successful  Teutonic  warriors 
appears  to  be  Weismann,  who  imposed  his  yoke 
on  the  larger  part  of  the  biological  world.  They  would 
still  seem  happy  under  it,  even  if  uneasy  at  times,  and, 
perhaps,  more  doubtful  than  they  appear.  It  is  the  duty 
of  the  orthodox  to  disclaim  doubt  and  to  profess  belief 
with  fervency.  This  is  especially  binding  upon  those  who 
occupy  the  pulpit :  if  the  priests  of  neo-Darwinians, 
that  cult  purified  of  pangenes,  use,  and  disuse,  and  the 
transmission  of  acquired  characteristics,  showed  hesita- 
tion and  ceased  to  preach  dogmatics,  their  reputations 
would  be  ruined,  and  the  congregation  become  a  lost 
flock.  Too  little  stress  is  laid  on  the  vices  of  orthodoxy 
for,  not  only  does  it  make  men  blind,  it  makes  them  cling 
to  untenable  positions.  It  would  be  more  than  terrible 
to  discover  that  theirs  was  the  worship  of  no  translated 
but  a  vanished  god.  For  did  not  Zeus  himself  die,  and 
is  he  not  buried  in  Crete  ? 

I  do  not  propose  in  a  short  chapter  to  deal  with  the 
whole  case  for  the  transmission  of  acquired  or  altered 
characteristics,  either  on  its  theoretic  or  experimental 
side.  But  it  has  already  been  suggested  in  this  book  that 
to  neglect  relative  speculation,  that  is  to  say,  speculation 

dealing  with  like  phenomena  on  different  planes  of  life, 

183 


184          WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

is  to  put  aside  a  powerful  weapon  of  analysis,  and  there 
are,  or  so  it  seems  to  me,  reasons  for  believing  that  some 
purely  theoretic  criticisms  of  the  germ-plasm  hypothesis 
may  help  to  show  where  it  is  true  and  where  false.  In 
any  case  the  orthodox  can  hardly  complain  of  the  use  of 
theory  since  Weismannism,  however  its  characteristics 
have  been  altered  and  transmitted,  is  still  almost  purely 
theoretical,  being  supported  chiefly  by  the  argument  that 
no  other  view  accounts  for  everything.  This  is,  how- 
ever, a  theological  rather  than  a  scientific  argument, 
for  the  inclusive  and  complete  hypothesis  is  dear  to  the 
ecclesiastic  mind. 

It  can,  perhaps,  be  remarked  that  orthodox  biologists 
do  not  avail  themselves  of  all  biological  resources.  In 
discussion  the  salient  fact  emerges  that  they  rely  mainly 
on  cytology  for  practical  support.  But  since  cytology 
is  dependent  on  the  microscope,  a  valuable  but  increas- 
ingly hazardous  tool  of  research  as  higher  powers  are 
used,  the  more  observations  are  extended  the  more  un- 
certain are  the  conclusions  reached.  Among  few  of  the 
pure  school  of  neo-Darwinians  do  we  see  the  biological 
conception  of  the  organism  properly  considered,  nor  do 
the  devotees  of  cell -structure  and  the  ever-enlarging 
ritual  of  the  chromosomes  seem  to  reflect  that  every  cell 
they  observe  in  situ  or  in  the  dark  field  is  after  all  a  uni- 
cellular organism.  When  it  is  so  considered,  since  any 
organism  is  a  definite  spatially  related  set  of  colonial 
organisms,  it  might  even  seem  that  Weismann  himself 
had  given  his  whole  case  away  by  admitting  that  uni- 
cellular organisms  could  and  did  acquire  and  transmit 
acquired  or  altered  characteristics. 

It  may  be  repeated,  moreover,  that  biologists  how- 
ever learned  in  cytology  and  the  pure  literature  of  their 


HEREDITY  AND  ENVIRONMENT  185 

own  subject,  for  the  most  part  ignore  all  the  related 
sciences.  With  regard  to  pathology  I  have  endeavoured 
in  some  measure  to  make  good  this  omission  in  the 
remarks  on  Repair  in  Evolution,  and  although  it  is  obvious 
that  the  conclusions  reached  there  are  not  likely  to  be 
greeted  with  enthusiasm  by  those  who  hold  the  germ- 
plasm  theory,  I  shall  not  now  lay  any  great  stress  upon 
them.  In  this  place  it  may  be  more  pertinent  to  turn 
to  general  histology,  a  subject  which  so  far  seems  little 
known  to  those  engaged  in  biological  study.  For 
nearly  all  work  upon  heredity  appears  to  begin 
with,  and  to  be  founded  upon,  a  consideration  of  the 
perfect  gametes,  and  to  proceed  with  elaborate  accounts 
of  their  reduction,  maturation,  and  fusion  in  the  zygote 
without  taking  into  full  account  the  tissue  history  of  the 
organs  in  which  they  arise.  In  saying  so  much  the  in- 
sistence on  germinal  epithelium  is  not  overlooked,  for 
nowhere  have  I  been  able  to  discover  why  it  is  called 
"  germinal,"  except  from  the  fact  that  in  the  higher 
organisms  the  sperm  and  egg  cells  descend  from  epithe- 
lium. Although  in  many  of  the  lower  kinds  they 
spring  from  blood  cells,  or  other  cells,  this  fact  is  inter- 
preted by  Weismannians  as  the  pressing  of  germ  cells 
into  general  service,  a  view  which  is  an  outrage  on  logic. 
It  may  be  suggested  that  the  tissue  history  of  the 
colony  of  epithelial  cells  in  which  they  develop  must 
discover  one  very  important  fact,  which  is  that  they 
have  a  special  environment,  and  that  when  they  are 
"  born,"  that  is  to  say  when  they  leave  it  for  another, 
the  second  or  third  place  they  occupy,  though  still  an 
environment,  is  less  and  less  special  as  the  growing  cell 
itself  specializes.  It  seems  to  be  forgotten  that  among 
mammalians  the  offspring  is  at  the  least  "  born  "  three 


186         WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

times,  once  when  extruded  from  the  Graafian  follicle, 
once  when  it  throws  in  its  lot  with  the  sperm  cell  and 
makes  common  stock  of  its  energy  and  chromosomatic 
tools,  and  again  when  extruded  by  the  uterus  after  a 
prolonged  period  of  parasitism.  With  a  properly  and 
naturally  nourished  infant  the  number  of  births  may 
be  said  to  reach  four  when  it  is  weaned.  Far  too  much 
criticism  is  made  of  direct  adaptation  to  environment 
in  the  adult  organism,  and  far  too  little  study  given  to 
pre-embryonic  and  embryonic  stages,  even  by  most  of 
the  advocates  of  such  adaptation. 

As  mitigating  to  some  extent  the  fairly  obvious 
biological  ignorance  of  histology,  it  must  be  admitted 
that  very  little  seems  known  of  the  histology  of  the 
ovaries  and  the  ova,  the  testes  and  the  spermatoza,  for 
Schafer  disposes  of  the  subject  in  a  few  lines,  and  other 
authorities  are  equally  brief.  Something  may  be  found 
in  Wilson,  and  Weismann  himself  dealt  with  it  in- 
effectively. As  his  theory  rendered  it  unimportant, 
this  is  not  a  matter  for  wonder.  The  ovarian  tissues 
and  the  history  of  the  oocytes  seem  less  known  than 
that  of  the  testes,  although  in  this  last  case  much 
remains  to  be  cleared  up.  It  is  a  fact  that  both  sperm  cell 
and  ovum  develop,  not  from  any  more  obviously  special 
tissue  than  epithelium,  but  very  often  from  epithelioid 
cells  which  have  not  taken  on  the  full  character  of  epi- 
thelium. To  deal  first  with  the  testis,  we  may  say  with 
Schafer  and  Brown,  that  the  sperm  cells  are  developed 
from  the  small  spermatoblasts  which  form  the  inner 
stratum  of  the  seminal  epithelium,  and  that  these  them- 
selves are  formed  by  division  from  the  spermatogenic 
or  mother  cell  of  the  second  layer.  It  seems  probable 
that  these  descend  from  the  lining  epithelium.  Thus 


HEREDITY  AND  ENVIRONMENT  187 

we  have  a  definite  descent  of  the  sperm  cell  in  at 
least  four  stages :  (i)  Division  of  living  epithelium  cell 
into  two  cells,  one  of  which  becomes  a  spermatogen  and 
passes  into  the  second  layer,  while  the  other  does  not 
migrate,  but  enlarges  and  becomes  a  sustentacular 
cell,  apparently  connected  with  the  nutrition  of  the 
spermatozoa  when  fully  formed  and  during  conversion. 
(2)  Division  of  the  spermatogen.  (3)  Further  division 
and  resulting  daughter  cells  are  converted  into  spermato- 
blasts.  (4)  Growth  and  elongation  of  spermatoblasts 
into  spermatozoa. 

In  the  ovaries  similar  processes  appear  to  take 
place  by  which  the  follicles  are  developed  from  lining 
epithelium.  Some  of  the  cells  develop  into  ova,  and 
are  thus  direct  descendants  of  epithelium.  So  far  it 
seems  that  there  is  no  reason  whatsoever  to  be  found 
in  any  of  the  processes  for  assuming  that  germ-plasm 
in  the  narrow  sense  exists  at  all.  The  succeeding 
phenomena  can  be  accounted  for  without  any  great 
exercise  of  faith  if  we  consider  such  processes  as  de- 
pendent on  the  cell's  energy  and  the  catalysts,  or  tools, 
brought  over  in  the  oocyte  and  sperm  cell,  or  derived 
later  by  the  zygote  from  the  tissues  and  blood-stream 
of  the  maternal  parent.  For  during  the  most  important 
part  of  the  reproductive  cell's  life,  that  spent  in  the 
originating  tissue,  it  was  a  unicellular  organism  acquir- 
ing the  characteristics  which  under  other  conditions 
develop  and  diverge.  If  such  a  view  is  accepted  the 
great  determining  period  of  the  reproductive  cell  is  its 
early  testicular  or  ovarian  history,  not  that  of  its 
later  embryonic  life.  During  the  first  state  we  can 
easily  imagine  the  epithelioid  cell  acquiring  freely  the 
activators,  catalysts,  or  similar  hormones,  which  direct 


188          WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

operations  in  the  adult  organism.  To  say  that  it  contains 
germ-plasm  is  to  assume  something  without  real  proof, 
and  no  observations  of  germ-tracks,  or  theories  of 
germinal  epithelium  as  ultimate  facts,  can  invalidate 
the  conclusion  that,  as  the  function  and  form  of  the 
adult  are  determined  by  definite  agents,  so  the  functions 
and  form  of  the  free  oocyte,  sperm  cell,  or  zygote,  are 
thus  determined  from  moment  to  moment  of  its  develop- 
ment. Such  a  view  takes  into  account  the  law  of 
parsimony,  which  requires  us  to  posit  no  unknown 
factors  where  known  ones  can  be  seen  producing  similar 
results. 

Pure  early  theoretic  Weismannism  has  no  doubt  been 
modified  and  diluted.  So  has  early  theology.  We  are 
no  longer  required  to  assent  to  a  cloud  of  biophors,  a 
hierarchy  of  determinants,  and  a  whole  angelology  of  ids 
as  a  sine  qua  non  to  biological  salvation,  though  it  may 
possibly  be  shown  that  the  dilution  of  the  theory  has  not 
allowed  for  the  truth  in  it,  if  it  is  considered  rather  as  an 
illustration  than  as  true  theory.  But  still  sufficient  of  the 
suggested  machinery  remains  to  enable  the  neo-Darwinian 
to  believe  that  all  change  is  due  to  minute  germinal  varia- 
tions in  the  chromosomes,  though  no  one  of  them  has  yet 
acknowledged  that  such  variations  are  variations  in  definite 
tools,  as  even  Weismann  himself  might  have  acknowledged 
if  as  much  had  been  known  of  the  endocrines  in  his  time 
as  is  known  now.  Disguise  it  as  they  may,  the  whole  theory 
as  held  is  concealed  vitalism  and  a  circulus  in  definiendo. 
If  the  germ-plasm  is  an  ultimate  fact  not  resolvable  into 
recognizable  scientific  factors  it  is  absurd  to  call  the  theory 
scientific,  unless  it  is  asserted  that  "  nature  "  and  "  life  " 
are  scientific  words  instead  of  verbal  shorthand.  Nothing, 
indeed,  can  be  described  as  scientific  explanation  which 


HEREDITY  AND  ENVIRONMENT  189 

cannot  in  the  end  show  phenomena  as  the  result  of  known 
factors.  Thus  ultimate  explanation  is  not  explanation 
at  all.  We  cannot  yet  resolve  final  physical  laws,  and 
therefore  ultimate  physics  can  only  be  called  descriptive. 
It  is  true  the  phenomena  may  in  the  end  be  ranged  under 
mathematical  conceptions ;  but  mathematical  reasoning  is 
not  science  in  the  strict  sense.  It  is  abstract  illustration 
of  theoretic  possibilities,  and  thus  akin  to  pure  logic.  The 
theory  of  Weismann,  if  it  has  any  foundation,  must  be 
capable  of  resolution,  and  may  not  be  looked  on  as  a  quasi- 
mathematical  or  purely  verbal  illustration  of  possible 
mechanism.  The  effort  of  the  neo-Darwinians  to  dispense 
with  his  terminology  is,  indeed,  not  sound.  What  they 
should  have  done,  and  what  remains  to  be  done,  is  to  see 
if  his  terms  will  bear  translation  into  measurable  factors. 
This,  I  think,  can  be  achieved  but,  if  it  can,  the  "  nature  " 
of  the  germ-plasm  will  disappear  and  theoretic  deter- 
minants must  disclose  themselves  as  hormones,  enzymes, 
catalysts,  and  successively  formed  internal  secretions,  by 
which  each  early  cell-change  or  later  embryonic  or  adult 
development  is  actually  determined.  As  held,  the  theory  is 
but  a  form  of  the  "  Absolute  "  conditioned  purely  by  natural 
selection.  It  may  appeal  to  some  philosophers,  and  to  those 
whose  tendency  is  to  short-circuit  explanation  by  the  hasty 
use  of  final  definitions ;  but  it  might  at  least  give  pause  to 
its  adherents  to  observe  that  anatomists,  physiologists, 
palaeontologists,  and  many  others  work  habitually  on  the 
theory  that,  whatever  the  mechanism,  modifications  can 
be  transmitted.  It  is  true  they  may  agree  with  the  orthodox 
biologist  that  in  such  cases  the  nuclear  contents  of  the 
reproductive  cells  are  altered ;  but  they  would  certainly 
add  that  such  an  alteration  must  be  in  the  nature  of  an 
addition,  subtraction,  or  new  combination  of  substances  of 


190         WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

a  catalytic  or  determining  nature.  And  if  this  is  correct 
it  follows,  from  all  we  know  of  iron-using  bacteria  to  the 
latest  hypo-  or  hyperthyroidal  patient,  that  these  sub- 
stances, however  simple  or  complex,  can  be  added  or  taken 
away,  and  that  in  the  food,  or  in  successive  metabolic 
states  resulting  from  its  use,  new  catalysts  may  be  formed, 
combined  or  changed,  as  they  can  be  by  environmental 
stimuli  such  as  light.  When  saying  so  much  it  should  be 
added  that  I  am  aware  of  the  work  done,  which,  in  certain 
cases,  shows,  or  seems  to  show,  that  there  is  an  early 
isolation  of  a  germ-cell,  ex  hypothesi,  containing  the  unim- 
pressionable "germ-plasm."  Yet  whatever  may  be  found 
with  regard  to  the  embryo  of  a  shark,  or  any  of  the  cases 
held  to  prove  such  early  specialization,  the  facts  are 
insufficient  on  which  to  found  a  general  law.  They  afford 
no  explanation  of  budding  or  repair,  or  the  cases  in  which 
"  germ-cells  "  are  wandering  amoeboid  bodies,  and  even 
blood-cells,  or  of  the  so-called  germinal  epithelium  itself. 
To  speak,  as  is  often  done,  of  specificity  of  detail  as  being 
determined  wholly  by  chromosomatic  facts,  without  re- 
solving the  magic  of  "  specificity"  into  definite  "  tools,"  is 
surely  idle.  It  is  concealed  vitalism.  Nor  do  we  really 
learn  much  when  we  are  told  that  in  certain  cases  germ- 
cells  do  not  arise  from  ccelomic  epithelium,  but  that  they 
migrate  from  special  germ-areas  into  the  gonad,  since  there 
are  so  many  different  ways  in  which  such  specialization 
begins. 

To  show  that  the  natural  tendency  of  the  physiologist  is 
to  accept  such  a  view  as  transmission  Starling  may  be 
quoted.  His  work  on  hormones,  done  in  conjunction  with 
Bayliss,  shows  that  he  has  a  great  appreciation  of  the  power 
of  certain  secretions  to  influence  in  the  profoundest  degree 
digestive  and  metabolic  processes.  The  possibility  of 


HEREDITY  AND  ENVIRONMENT  191 

prostate  secretion  tabloids  curing  chronic  mastitis  may  be 
mentioned  (Lane).  Since  few  biologists  concern  them- 
selves as  much  as  they  should  with  physiology,  and  not  at 
all  with  pathology,  which  is  just  as  necessary  a  part  of 
their  proper  apparatus,  it  may  be  pointed  out  that  some 
internal  secretions  have  such  observable  effects  in  the 
minutest  proportions.  That  it  becomes  intelligible  how  the 
minute  parathyroids,  four  of  which  weigh  two  grains, 
have  such  great  physiological  effects  as  to  make  certain 
they  are  real  determinants.  According  to  Schafer,  a  strip 
of  intestinal  muscle  is  affected  by  adrenalin  in  a  solution 
of  i  in  20,000,000  and  a  strip  of  coronary  artery  by  i  in 
50,000,000.  Pysemsky  and  Kravkov  state  that  the  effect 
of  one  part  in  250,000,000  could  be  detected  when  per- 
fusing a  rabbit's  ear  with  Ringer's  solution.  Such  results 
may  at  least  suggest  that  an  almost  infinitely  small  pro- 
portion of  an  inorganic  catalyst  or  organic  secretion, 
whether  coming  over  in  an  egg  or  sperm  cell,  or  taken  in 
later  from  the  parental  host,  might  be  a  determinant  of 
immense  capacity.  No  doubt  such  ideas  as  these  moved 
Starling  to  the  statement  that  "  cell-division  in  the  organism 
might  be  spoken  of  as  the  evolution  of  a  new  kind  of  cell, 
but  that  the  change  takes  place  within  the  development 
of  the  multicellular  parent,  or  host,  instead  of  occupying 
a  long  space  of  time  and  involving  the  destruction  of 
countless  individuals  as  when  a  change  of  type  occurs 
gradually  in  a  unicellular  organism."  Now,  independent 
of  the  fact  that  we  have  no  evidence  that  a  unicellular 
organism  may  not  change  as  quickly,  or  even  more  quickly, 
when  transferred  to  water  with  different  saline  constituents, 
as  an  Alpine  flower  when  transferred  to  the  warm  lowlands, 
and  even  positive  evidence  that  it  can  so  change  (J.  Loeb), 
it  may  be  remarked  that  about  seven  months  from  im- 


192          WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

pregnation  is  sufficient  for  a  new  human  being  to  become 
viable.  That  delivery  usually  takes  place  at  nine  is  due 
no  doubt  to  the  average  size  of  the  pelvic  ring.  Yet  the 
maternal  organism  took  many  millions  of  years  to  become 
what  it  is  now  if  some  anthropologists  are  right  in  thinking 
man,  as  man,  dates  back  at  least  1,500,000  years.  If  the 
evolution  of  such  a  high  metazoan  from  a  unicellular 
organism  took  only  ten  million  years,  which  seems  an  im- 
possibly short  time,  similar  changes  are  actually  repeated 

in   about    six    months,    say of    the   time   of 

20000000 

evolution.  On  what  grounds  then  can  we  assert  that 
some  undifferentiated  protoplasmic  units  cannot  become 
developed  oocytes  during  the  time  from  birth  to  puberty  ? 
The  simpler  spermatozoa,  also  developing  from  un- 
specialized  epithelioid  tissue,  come  even  earlier  to 
maturity,  as  they  may  be  found  active  in  infants.  Time 
does  not  seem  the  essence  of  the  contract,  for  the  whole 
physiological  theory  of  living  matter  is  practically  based 
on  what  is  known  and  measurable,  the  activating  and 
accelerating  qualities  of  catalysts.  Without  going  to 
the  philosophers  or  metaphysicians,  to  Kant  or  Einstein, 
for  instruction  as  to  the  relativity  or  physical  nature 
of  the  time  concept,  we  can  recognize  that  it  is  at  least 
purely  relative  in  physiology  and  biology.  The  whole 
of  evolution,  as  of  education,  is  the  discovery  of  short 
cuts,  and  in  this  the  Principle  of  Least  Action  is  at  work. 
Free  energy  perpetually  adopts  the  shortest  path  to  become 
bound.  Common  sense  itself  is  that  principle  in  social 
work.  Little  by  little  the  organism  as  it  evolved  picked 
up  and  transmitted  by  successive  experiment,  by  trial 
and  error,  activators  which  hastened  processes.  Time, 
therefore,  in  the  sense  that  Starling  used  it,  does  not  seem 


HEREDITY  AND  ENVIRONMENT  193 

to  be  an  essential  factor.  His  instincts,  and  his  knowledge 
of  activating  principles  and  processes,  appear  to  have  led 
him  right  after  all.  Activating  elements  are  supplied 
fully  developed  by  the  parents  who  took  uncounted 
ages  to  acquire  them.  There  is  no  reason  whatsoever 
for  not  endorsing  Starling's  almost  wistful  statement, 
although  in  some  moment  of  doubt  he  rejected  it  at  last. 
If  the  elements  themselves  show  that  in  a  like  temperature- 
environment  they  stay  the  same,  and  change  when  it 
changes,  and  yet  go  back  when  it  again  alters,  no  more 
is  asked  by  any  advocate  of  transmission.  We  may  even 
say,  as  I  have  suggested  elsewhere,1  that  the  whole  course 
of  evolution  suggests  that  what  we  have  to  discover  is  not 
why  child  is  like  parent  but  why,  in  certain  cases,  it  is 
unlike,  being  sure  as  we  pass  to  the  investigation  that  some 
internal  or  external  environmental  cause  is  at  the  bottom 
of  the  alteration.  Belogolovy  bred  ova  of  the  frog 
Pelobates  in  the  parental  body  cavity.  Their  "  deter- 
minants "  determined  nothing  as  the  ova  became  para- 
sitic and  presented  highly  abnormal  characteristics,  not 
Pelobatic  at  all.  Such  considerations  may  no  doubt 
be  dismissed  as  purely  theoretical,  or  even  excursions  of 
the  fancy ;  but  if  it  is  noted  that  the  greatest  weakness 
to  which  all  scientific  men  are  liable  is  the  natural  tendency 
to  take  the  easiest  path,  and  ignore  general  principles, 
they  may  not  seem  so  much  out  of  place.  The  easiest 
path  at  a  given  time  is  not  always  the  right  one.  We 
may  get  very  doubtful  adaptation  to  facts,  for  energy 
over  the  pyramidal  tract  does  not  work  with  the  same 
certainty  as  adrenalin. 

If  the  orthodox  school  could  give  any  hint  as  to  how 
a  variation  is  to  be  explained,  and  what  it  is  that  is  changed 

1  Vide  Repair  in  Evolution. 
13 


194          WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

in  the  germ-plasm  or  the  chromosomes,  they  would  be 
compelled  to  come  down  to  the  earth  and  stand  on  the 
firm  ground  of  chemical  or  biochemical  action.  Once 
there  they  might  be  led  to  admit  at  last  that  any  steady 
external  stimulus  may  alter  one  cell,  and  that  if  so  it  may 
alter  many,  or  that  the  accidental  acquisition  of  some 
metal  or  salt  may  end  in  its  being  a  permanent  tool  in  the 
armoury  of  the  whole  organism.  Their  very  insistence 
on  germinal  qualities  and  intra-germinal  "  struggle  "  and 
selection  is  sound  so  far  as  it  goes ;  but  they  cannot  be 
allowed  to  remain  juggling  with  such  factors  without 
telling  us  in  what  the  struggle  consists,  and  what  weapons 
or  tools  are  used,  or  at  the  very  least  without  taking 
into  consideration  what  other  sciences  can  supply  them 
with.  It  is  a  sound  principle,  and  certainly  one  I  have 
always  tried  to  bear  in  mind,  that  no  body  of  earnest 
workers  can  be  altogether  wrong.  Even  the  Hering- 
Semon  "  mnemes  "  and  Samuel  Butler's  "  memory  "  can 
now  be  translated  into  biochemical  factors.  If  in  one 
sense  a  "  mneme  "  seemed  to  mean  no  more  than  that 
an  altered  thing  was  no  longer  what  it  was,  we  may  still 
turn  the  word  into  measurable  factors.  The  experience 
of  the  cell  is  in  its  education,  its  acquisition  of  new  tools, 
and  "  memory  "  is  but  the  due  repetition  of  phenomena 
when  like  causes  and  catalysts  are  in  action  in  like  tissues. 
The  desired  bridge  between  those  who  assert  and  those 
who  deny  transmission  must  in  the  end  be  found  by 
building  on  factors  which  admit  the  basal  doctrines  of 
both.  It  may  be  admitted  that  the  "  germ-plasm,"  or 
reproductive  cell  with  all  the  tools  in  its  nucleus  or 
scattered  as  granules  among  the  great  society  of  its 
molecular  units,  changes  for  the  most  part  with  great 
difficulty.  It  is  a  conservative  social  organism.  But 


HEREDITY  AND  ENVIRONMENT  195 

change  it  does,  and  in  the  end  changes  must  be  due  to 
the  whole  of  the  environment.  Exactly  the  same  may  be 
said  of  the  social  organism.  Few  who  take  a  philo- 
sophical view  of  history  would  deny  that  the  most  salient 
fact  about  man  is  really  his  conservatism.  They  might 
even  adopt  the  terminology  of  the  biologists,  and  say  his 
germ-plasm  altered  not  at  all.  Yet  on  further  reflection 
they  would  admit  that  a  similar  "  victory  over  nature," 
as  occurs  when  a  cell  gets  hold  of  a  new  tool,  occurs  when 
man  learns  to  use  steam  or  electricity.  From  one  point 
of  view,  with  a  short  time-element,  social  change  seems 
rapid.  From  another  it  appears  slow.  We  may  say 
that  any  organ  is  elastic  or  rigid,  just  as  we  please, 
according  to  the  point  of  view  we  happen  to  take  at  the 
time. 

As  I  have  pointed  out  in  other  places,  the  obscurity 
of  cellular  phenomena  is  probably  greatly  increased  by 
the  assumption  that  the  nucleus  is  "  alive,"  that  is, 
composed  of  protoplasm.1  There  seems  no  evidence  for 
this  beyond  the  fact  that  it  contains  nucleins,  the  whole 
chemistry  of  which  was  worked  out  by  Emil  Fischer 
(Bayliss).  These  nucleins  are  compounds  of  a  protein 
with  nucleic  acid.  Many  enzymes  deal  with  their  meta- 
bolism, and  it  is  far  more  probable  that  they  are  the 
reserve  food  protein  of  the  living  protoplasm  than  part 
of  that  much  more  obscure  and  complex  protein  engine. 
Certainly  it  seems  that  a  far  clearer  notion  of  a  cell's 
activities  is  reached  if  we  conceive  it  as  a  social  aggregate 
of  protoplasmic  units,  however  complex  they  may  be, 
with  a  storehouse  of  food  and  tools  or  working  catalytic 
bodies,  than  if  we  regard  the  varying  moving  nucleus  as 
a  live  part  of  it.  When  a  test-bearing  protozoon  has 

1  Vide  Method  in  Science. 


196 

its  test  pierced  the  nucleus  moves  up  to  the  breach  and 
repairs  it.  Such  a  process  mimics  purposed  action,  and, 
indeed,  is  purposed  action  if,  as  certainly  may  be  done, 
we  analyse  all  purpose  into  complexes  of  tropisms.  The 
probable  causes  of  the  nuclear  movements  are  the  negative 
tropisms  of  the  protoplasmic  elements.  They  are  repelled 
by  the  salts  of  the  water,  in  which  the  cell  lives,  and  from 
which  the  test  protects  them,  and  gradually  thrust  for- 
ward the  non-living  nucleus  which  contains  the  catalysts 
or  tools  which  can  hasten  the  deposition  of  such  con- 
stituents of  the  cell  wall  as  are  needed  for  repair.  The 
process  is  exactly  similar  to  that  of  an  expert  with  tools 
being  thrust  and  drawn  into  the  position  in  which  he 
can  use  them  to  make  good  the  result  of  some  accident 
which  requires  instant  attention.  These  views  are  sup- 
ported by  the  work  of  Haberlandt. 

This  conception  of  a  nuclear  tool-house  and  store- 
house brings  the  cell  as  a  social  organism  into  line  with 
those  we  more  commonly  call  social,  and  if  the  generaliza- 
tion is  made  that  living  action  of  all  kinds,  in  the  cell,  a 
tissue,  an  organ,  an  animal,  a  social  body,  or  an  "  in- 
dividual "  such  as  a  nation,  is  of  a  like  nature,  it  may  be 
inferred  that  it  is  not  so  much  on  the  actual  protoplasm 
itself  as  on  the  acquired  tools,  and  what  is  made  by  them, 
that  differences  of  form  and  action  depend.  The  same 
protoplasmic  energy  engine  makes  a  muscle  cell  or  a 
neuron.  The  notion  of  different  kinds  or  grades  of  proto- 
plasm appears  to  be  without  foundation.  That  of  a 
sperm  cell  or  a  hepatic  cell  is  probably  just  the  same  and, 
if  Child  (Senescence  and  Rejuvenescence)  is  right,  it  may 
surely  be  inferred  that  an  increase  of  protoplasmic 
activity  depends  on  new  tools,  the  increase  of  old  ones, 
or  the  loss  of  those  once  useful  which  have  ceased  to  be 


HEREDITY  AND  ENVIRONMENT  197 

so,  while  its  decrease  follows  on  the  retention  of  what  is  no 
longer  needed  or  effective — a  highly  conservative  pro- 
ceeding. The  conservative  tendency  to  retain  property 
of  all  kinds  is  thus  seen  in  the  very  cell,  and  a  house 
crowded  with  useless  lumber  has  its  true  analogue  in  a 
so-called  senescent  cell,  which  has  become  static  and  rigid 
with  a  morbid  "  sense  of  property."  Old  age  is  truly 
hindrance  and  poisoning,  not  necessarily  any  alteration 
of  protoplasmic  units,  whatever  they  may  be. 

To  some  it  may  seem  an  unjustifiable  inference,  but 
the  conclusions  reached  in  this  way  tend  to  show  that 
every  determinant,  late  or  early,  is  a  definite  tool  or  engine. 
England  is  not  the  same  country  that  it  was  when  wood 
was  used  instead  of  coal.  It  changed  with  great  rapidity 
when  the  use  of  steam  became  common.  Electricity 
has  till  greater  possibilities  of  change.  But  we  cannot 
assert  that  the  brains  of  the  modern  business  man  are 
better  than  those  of  the  Athenians,  or  that  Watt  and 
Stephenson  were  greater  geniuses  than  men's  early  ancestor 
who  first  made  a  wheel,  or  the  one  who  discovered  that 
watrr  poured  on  the  early  rude  axle  acted  as  a  cooling 
age-it  and  lubricant.  The  reason  of  the  rapid  advance 
of  the  Americans  in  material  civilization  was  their  adapta- 
tion of  the  English  tools  into  an  organism  less  cumbered 
with  static  elements.  Vested  interests  discover  them- 
selves as  slowers  of  metabolism,  and  as  obstacles  to  new 
construction,  the  result  of  new  tools  which  can  be  acquired 
and  transmitted.  Germ-plasm  on  this  view  is  just  the 
same  as  any  other  plasm,  and  if  the  nee-Darwinians 
insist  that  practically,  that  is,  in  any  given  time,  it  does 
not  alter,  no  one  will  have  any  quarrel  with  them.  But 
those  who  believe  that  cell  is  a  social  aggregate  using  tools 
as  much  as  an  animal  or  a  society,  and  that  the  same  laws 


198          WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

rule  all  organic  growth  and  change  assuredly,  cannot  accept 
the  view  that  Natural  Selection  and  germinal  accidents 
are  the  sole  causes  of  variation.  Such  conclusions  imply 
entirely  different  laws  for  similar  aggregates,  and  have 
an  unholy  resemblance  to  vitalism,  the  conception  of 
entelechies,  or  to  Driesch's  rudimentary  psychoids,  surely 
the  most  humorous  extravagance  since  Hartzoeker's 
Homunculus. 

It  has  not  been  my  intention  in  this  paper  to  point  to 
the  strong  evidence  in  favour  of  transmission  of  acquisi- 
tions.1 Cunningham,  MacBride,  Kammerer,  and  others 
can  take  care  of  themselves,  and  have  presented  many 
enigmas  to  those  who  would  solve  them  on  the  principle 
of  the  continuity  of  germ-plasm.  To  those,  however, 
who  have  read  the  chapter  on  Repair  in  Evolution  it  will 
be  obvious  that  the  evidence  brought  forward  there  must 
be  rebutted,  distorted,  or  rejected,  without  consideration 
of  the  general  laws  of  mechanical  or  other  construction, 
if  the  theory  that  variations  are  due  to  the  phenomena 
of  fertilization  is  to  have  the  remotest  chance  of  survival. 
I  may,  however,  remark  that  further  reading  and  con- 
sideration have  confirmed  me  in  the  view  that  variational 
repair  takes  place  during  embryonic  growth  owing  to 
increased  functional  activity  due  to  relative  changes  of 
catalytic  elements  in  the  parent.  To  those  with  the 
smallest  knowledge  of  histology  the  phenomena  of  muscle 
growth  alone  are  sufficient  to  prove  this,  unless  they  are 
content  to  believe  that  small  minute  variation  can  con- 
struct such  a  wonderful  though  obviously  repaired  organ 
as  the  heart.  Organ-forming  substances  there  undoubtedly 
are,  but  they  must  finally  be  translated  into  chemical  or 
biochemical  agents,  probably  of  a  discoverable  kind, 

1  See  Appendix  B.     The  Peroneus  Tertius. 


HEREDITY  AND  ENVIRONMENT  199 

which  influence  all  forms  of  growth.  Thus  even  Lewis's 
experiment  of  transplanting  the  optic  vesicle,  with  the 
result  of  a  transformation  of  the  skin  above  it  into  a 
rudimentary  lens,  will  probably  be  finally  explained  as  the 
evolutionary  possession  by  the  vesicle  of  a  catalytic  secre- 
tion activated  by  light  which  alters  the  form  and  structure 
of  the  epithelial  cells  in  close  contact  with  it.  We  can 
conceive  no  organ-forming  substance  to  construct  the 
heart ;  but  it  is  easy  enough  to  regard  it  as  a  progressively 
formed  functional  adaptation  to  stresses  imposed  upon  it 
during  embryonic  growth  in  which  it  is,  to  use  Starling's 
words,  "  a  new  creation."  Von  Nageli  and  Hertwig 
pointed  out  with  each  stage  in  growth  the  internal  environ- 
mental complexity  increases.  But  such  complexity  uses 
an  increasing  complexity  of  tools,  for  just  as  mere  increase 
of  numbers  in  a  factory  without  new  instruments  does 
not  necessarily  result  in  new  differentiations  among  the 
workers  or  different  structural  developments  in  the  build- 
ings, so  in  the  animal  organism  mere  increase  in  bulk  does 
not  imply  increasing  complexity.  The  most  important 
variables  in  all  growth,  structure,  and  function  are  the 
"  tools  "  used,  and  the  engines  made  of  them,  and  the 
illustrations  of  the  phenomena  of  budding  and  mitosis 
given  in  Method  in  Science  are  probably  far  more  than 
illustrations  of  the  way  in  which  organisms  in  a  changing 
environment  acquire  the  tools  which  change  function 
and  change  structure  and  can  be  transmitted,  just  as  they 
can  be  lost  in  another  environment. 

It  seems,  then,  as  if  Weismann  occupies  the  position 
of  a  mathematician  who  works  out  a  set  of  equations  in 
which  a,  b,  x,  and  y  obviously  represent  no  more  than 
possible  theoretic  factors  leading  to  a  conclusion  which 
is  afterwards  found  to  be  near  the  mark  as  soon  as  the 


200 

letters  employed  are  translated  into  physical  agents. 
So  far  Weismann  was  right.  But  living  processes  work 
out  like  complex  mathematical  equations.  The  Binomial 
Theorem  may  be  in  (x+y)  n  in  one  sense,  but  so  was  Keat's 
"  Ode  to  the  Nightingale  "  in  the  alphabet.  It  is  common 
among  mathematicians  to  say  such  and  such  an  equation 
"  naturally  becomes  "  such  and  such,  or  takes  another 
form  from  which  yet  another  can  be  deduced.  This 
"  naturally  becomes  "  is  intelligible  to  another  mathe- 
matician, but  the  unlearned  require  the  insertion  of  the 
steps  omitted  to  perceive  that  the  change  is  logical.  The 
orthodox  theory  omits  the  links,  and  does  not  turn  its 
prime  equation  into  things.  There  is  a  likeness  between 
such  algebraic  processes,  and  those  which  take  place  in  the 
living  organism,  for  we  find  that  if  certain  tools  are  used 
in  ovarian  or  embryonic  stages  they  "  naturally  become  " 
varied  in  action,  and  though  we  may  know  little  more  of 
a  chromosomatic  tool  than  we  do  of  a  or  b  in  the  original 
equation,  we  perceive  that  in  conjunction  with  other 
activators  it  changes  into  adrenalin,  thyroidin,  secretin, 
or  some  other  regulative  or  directive  hormone.  Moreover, 
as  in  mathematical  reasoning  we  may  introduce  a  new 
variable  while  the  constant  remains  the  same,  so  it  is  with 
the  organism.  The  constant  is  protoplasm.  Not  all 
organisms  use  iron.  There  are  some  which  use  manganese. 
At  some  period  a  descendant  of  the  ancestral  amoeba 
of  the  mammal  picked  up  iron  and  used  it.  It  is  employed 
in  varying  quantities.  As  evolution  progressed  internal 
secretion  after  internal  secretion  came  into  existence, 
determining  living  action.  Without  adrenalin  the 
mammal  could  not  meet  danger  quickly.  But  it  is 
as  absurd  to  argue  that  the  mere  potentiality  of 
adrenalin  is  a  determinant  in  the  chromosome  as 


HEREDITY  AND  ENVIRONMENT          201 

it  would  be  to  argue  that  the  possession  of  a  fleet 
is  determined  by  the  "  nature  "  of  an  embryonic  tribe 
which  has  not  yet  seen  the  sea.  Environment  and  func- 
tion cannot  be  ignored.  A  fleet  does  not  grow  up  by 
minute  advantageous  "  spontaneous  "  variations.  It  is  an 
acquired  tool,  and  itself  determines  further  historic  evolu- 
tion. The  "  constant  "  in  germ-plasm  is  the  nature  of 
protoplasm  :  its  infinite  variability,  as  shown  in  all  forms 
of  life,  is  a  variability  which  is  further  and  further  con- 
stricted into  more  and  more  definite  lines  by  definite 
constructions,  until  at  last  in  a  static  environment  stasis 
is  reached.  Yet  the  discovery  of  another  tool,  a  new 
means  of  short-circuiting  labour,  may  again  set  the  static 
organism  upon  a  voyage  of  discovery  among  the  potentia- 
lities of  life.  With  change  of  function,  which  should  in- 
clude the  phenomena  of  regeneration  and  reduction,  comes 
morphallaxis.  Without  it  there  is  none.  Death  itself  is  an 
acquired  characteristic.  If  the  organism  were  not  perpetu- 
ally preyed  on  by  other  organisms,  which  by  parasitism  and 
poisoning  divert  or  hinder  energy,  inhibit,  or  over-activate, 
metabolism  through  the  induction  of  changes  in  the  endo- 
crines,  and  destroy  tissue  functions  generally,  it  is  con- 
ceivable that  such  a  characteristic  as  death  might  be 
lost,  and  that  any  body,  however  highly  developed,  might 
resume  the  long-abandoned  characteristics  of  unicellular 
organisms,  and  again  become  practically  immortal. 

REFERENCES. 

BAYLISS  and  STARLING. — "  Mechanism  of  Pancreatic  Secre- 
tion," Journ.  Physiol.,  London,  p.  28. 

BELOGOLOVY,  G.  A. — "  Nouvcaux  Memoires,"  Soc.  Imp. 
Naiuralistcs  de  Moscow,  1916. 

BUTLER,  SAMUEL. — "  Unconscious  Memory." 


202          WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

CH  ILD,  C.  M. — "  Senescence  and  Rejuvenescence,"  Chicago,  1915. 
FISCHER,   EMIL. — "  Untersuchingen  in  der  Puringruppe,  1907  ; 

v.  Bayliss,  "  Principles  of  General  Physiology,"  1915. 
HABERLANDT,  G. — "  Ueber  die  Beziehungen  zwischen  Functionen 

und  Lage  des  Zelkerns,"  1877. 
LANE,  Sir  A. — Lancet,  London,  Oct.  9,  1918. 
LOEB,  JACQUES. — "The  Organism  as  a  Whole,"  1916. 
OLIVER,  G.,  and  SCHAFER,  E.  A. — "  Physiological  Effects  of 

Extracts  of  Supra-renal  Capsules,"  Journ.  PhysioL,  London, 

1918. 
PYSEMSKY  and  KRAVKOV. — "  Adrenalin  and  Ear  of  Rabbit," 

Russky  Vratch,  vol.  xi.  p.  264. 
SCHAFER,  E.  A. — "  The  Endocrine  Organs,"  1916. 
WEISMANN,  A. — "The  Germ  Plasm,"    London,  1893. 
WILSON.— "The  Cell." 


CHAPTER    VIII 
THE  ORIGIN  OF  THERAPEUTIC  BATHING1 

THE  comparative  study  of  the  sciences,  upon  which  I 
have  insisted,  I  trust  not  unduly,  may  not  be  only 
of  value  where  pure  science  is  concerned,  but  may  also 
prove  of  immense  service  in  many  of  the  arts  of  life.  The 
conception  of  hostile  symbiosis  is  of  such  obvious  relevance 
in  politics  that  what  was  an  art  can  at  once  be  converted 
into  a  section  of  biology.  Moreover,  this  and  allied  con- 
ceptions tending  to  show  the  vital  analogies  in  all  con- 
struction may  be  employed  generally  in  education,  and 
especially  in  medicine,  in  which  narrowness  of  outlook 
is  especially  dangerous.  For  knowledge  of  one  kind  may, 
and  indeed  must,  act  as  a  catalyst  on  thought  with  regard 
to  another.  It  seemed  to  me  when  first  considering  the 
subject  of  this  chapter,  which  may,  perhaps,  seem  not  strictly 
connected  with  these  that  precede  it,  that  anthropology, 
upon  which  light  can  be  thrown  by  general  biology,  physi- 
ology and  pathology,  might  prove  of  the  greatest  value,  if 
taught  intelligently  and  with  due  appreciation  of  its  wide 
bearings,  to  all  students  of  the  human  brain  and  body.  It 
thus  appeared  to  me  that  a  very  simple  subject  which  was 

1  Although  never  read,  this  paper  was  written  as  an  address  to  a 
Balneological  Society,  and  therefore  may  retain  some  indication  of  its 
origin.  For  most  of  the  facts  I  am,  of  course,  indebted  to  The  Golden 
Bough,  the  mightiest  storehouse  of  co-ordinated  knowledge  in  the  English, 
or  any  other,  language. 


204          WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

still  obscure  might  illustrate  this  better  than  abstract 
reasoning,  if  the  processes  involved  in  its  study  showed  in 
what  ways  the  brain  is  apt  to  work,  and  how  purely 
magical  concepts  may  lead  to  useful  discovery.  If  we 
learn  how  our  remote  ancestors  thought,  we  shall  discern, 
perhaps  with  humility,  that  we  are  their  true  descendants, 
and  that  modern  life  with  all  its  advantages,  even  the 
modern  balneologist  and  the  very  household  bath  itself,  is 
still  a  subject  for  the  anthropologist. 

Although  very  few  of  us  are  like  the  Japanese  maid 
who  is  said  to  have  apologized  to  her  European  mistress 
for  not  taking  more  than  three  hot  baths  during  a 
busy  day,  to  most  educated  men  bathing  seems  a  natural, 
almost  an  instinctive  process.  They  would  be  uncom- 
fortable now  if  anything  went  wrong  with  the  morning 
bath,  as  it  is  apt  to  do  when  the  coal  supply  fails.  Such 
discomfort,  however,  is  soon  cured  by  compulsory  absti- 
nence, for  my  own  experience  has  taught  me  that  after 
three  days  want  of  washing  little  discomfort  is  felt  by  the 
average  man.  On  two  occasions  in  my  life,  once  at  sea 
coming  up  to  the  Falkland  Islands  from  the  Horn  in  very 
heavy  weather,  and  once  in  the  Australian  bush  when  there 
was  a  drought,  I  was  unable  for  a  fortnight  at  a  time  to  do 
so  much  as  wash  my  face.  The  feeling  of  discomfort  dis- 
appeared on  the  second  or  third  day,  and  I  seemed  ready 
to  do  without  washing  for  the  rest  of  my  life. 

The  truth  is  that  cleanliness  is  not  natural  to  mankind. 
Most  parents  know  from  their  own  experience  that  to 
teach  a  child  to  persevere  with  soap  and  water  is  the  most 
arduous  task  that  falls  to  a  mother  or  a  nurse.  Washing 
thus  appears  to  be  anything  but  the  result  of  instinct, 
since  it  is  not  so  much  as  an  easily  acquired  habit.  Un- 
luckily for  the  vast  body  of  the  population  in  our  civil- 


ORIGIN  OF  THERAPEUTIC  BATHING       205 

ization  it  is  not  even  economically  possible.  Those  who 
have  read  the  books  of  George  Gissing  may  remember 
that  he  answered  the  assertion  that  the  poor  might  at 
least  be  clean  by  exclaiming,  with  bitter  truth,  that 
cleanliness  was  an  expensive  luxury.  Among  many  of 
the  agricultural  and  pastoral  peasantry  of  Britain  a  man  is 
washed  all  over  twice,  or  at  most  three  times,  in  his  life  : 
once  when  he  is  born,  once  when  he  is  married,  though 
this  is  not  universal,  and  once  when  he  is  dead.  Yet 
bathing  before  marriage  in  many  cases  is  practically  a 
magic  ceremony,  and  since  magic  dates  from  the  remotest 
period  it  might  be  supposed  to  remain  as  ritual.  There  is 
no  doubt  that  the  washing  of  children  at  birth  was  also 
anciently  purificatory.  The  role  that  blood,  especially  the 
blood  of  women,  has  played  in  the  history  of  lustration  is 
very  remarkable.  That  the  corpse  is  also  washed  after 
death  is,  of  course,  also  the  remains  of  a  ceremony  of  puri- 
fication. But  if  it  is  a  fact  that  washing  in  its  origin  was 
due  to  religion  and  magic,  as  seems  certain,  how  did  it 
begin  at  all  ?  It  may  seem  absurd  to  ask  such  a  question  ; 
but  the  more  we  know  of  anthropology,  which  is  but  the 
study  of  man  in  the  making,  the  more  it  is  seen  that  all 
apparently  natural  processes  must  have  had  a  beginning, 
and  require  an  explanation.  It  has  often  been  observed 
that  even  the  instincts  themselves  are  not  perfect,  and 
require  experience  and  education.  One  of  the  very  deepest 
and  most  ancient,  that  of  sex,  is  certainly  not  least  in  need 
of  it.  One  need  not  read  Havelock  Ellis  to  discover  so 
much,  seeing  that  many  of  those  engaged  in  obstetrical  prac- 
tice have  assisted  at  deliveries  in  which  the  infant  in  the 
act  of  birth  destroyed  the  unbroken  hymen.  Education 
is  not  only  needed  with  the  sexual  instinct ;  but,  if  Horace 
Fletcher  and  Doctor  Chittenden  and  Sir  Michael  Foster 


206          WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

were  right,  it  is  the  same  with  some  of  the  obscure  reflexes 
connected  with  eating.  The  reflex  which  prevents,  or 
should  prevent  premature  deglutition,  is  outraged  by  all, 
especially  when  they  enjoy  the  pleasures  of  conversation 
and  the  table  at  the  same  time.  I  do  not  know  whether  it 
has  ever  been  noticed,  even  by  the  observers  I  have  named, 
that  this  particular  reflex  only  comes  naturally  into  play 
when  savage  methods  of  feeding  are  indulged  in,  that  is  to 
say,  when  the  mouth  is  crammed  with  food  and  swallowing 
in  the  ordinary  sense  is  actually  impossible.  If  we  decide 
to  re-educate  this  particular  reflex  Fletcher  advised  us  to 
work  over  long  paths  to  restore  its  efficacy  ;  that  is,  to 
attend  voluntarily  to  mastication.  It  may,  however,  be 
pointed  out  that  if  a  child  is  not  interfered  with  by  a 
polite  mother  it  will  fill  its  mouth  so  full  that  deglutition 
without  thorough  mastication  is  impossible.  The  natural 
instinct  will  lead  the  child  to  use  and  preserve  its  teeth 
and  its  digestion.  The  pleasant,  but  physiologically 
damnable,  habit  of  cheerful  conversation  at  meal-times 
should  be  corrected.  There  are,  however,  no  instincts 
which  lead  the  young  to  bathing,  and  such  reflex  actions  as 
are  connected  with  it  are,  among  the  simple,  merely  those 
of  repulsion.  The  instincts  of  mankind  are  really  against 
it.  What  then  was  its  origin,  seeing  the  common  dislike 
and  even  horror  of  water  displayed  by  those  unaccustomed 
to  it,  and  the  comparative  ease  with  which  even  the  most 
cleanly  under  pressure  learn  to  do  without  it  ?  I  think  it 
will  not  be  so  difficult  to  find  how  it  arose  and  branched 
into  purification  and  therapeutics  if  we  delve  into  the  far 
past  with  the  help  of  anthropology. 

The  first  thing  that  one  learns  in  dealing  with  primitive 
man  is,  that  although  he  was  logical,  his  premisses  partook 
of  the  simplicity  seen  in  children,  even  the  most  intelligent, 


ORIGIN  OF  THERAPEUTIC  BATHING      207 

as  they  learn  how  to  deal  with  the  world  before  them. 
What  seems  perfectly  natural  now  was  by  no  means 
natural  to  primeval  man.  How  indeed  could  it  be  when 
their  great  working  hypothesis  of  life  was  that  some  innate 
power  or  some  governing  spirit  was  at  the  bottom  of  every- 
thing ?  Before  animism,  in  the  sense  that  all  things  had 
souls,  was  a  current  belief,  the  primitive  mind  seems  to 
have  regarded  all  nature  as  self-moving  like  themselves. 
For  the  notion  of  spirit  is  a  late  abstract  notion.  But  when 
a  power  or  a  spirit,  good  or  bad,  had  to  be  managed,  it  is 
perfectly  obvious  that  water  itself,  that  strange  triple- 
natured  liquid,  should  have  become  the  subject  of  magic. 
Long  ages  before  Thales,  humanity  had  recognized  that  it 
was  in  many  ways  the  basis  of  life.  They  attributed  to  it 
remarkable  qualities,  and  when  the  Hebrews  spoke  of  it  as 
"living"  water  we  should  do  the  nature  of  language 
wrong  if  we  considered  the  adjective  was  employed  merely 
as  a  metaphor.  To  us  it  seems  natural  if  we  are  by  a  river 
or  a  pool  in  hot  weather  to  strip  ourselves  and  plunge  into 
it.  But  this  is  by  no  means  the  attitude  of  many  savages 
even  at  the  present  day,  and  in  the  far-off  beginning  of  time 
to  do  so  obviously  risked  placing  the  bather  at  the  mercy 
of  the  naturally  untrustworthy  fluid  or,  later,  of  the  spirit 
which  lived  in  and  moved  all  water. 

Among  savages  nothing  answers  to  our  conception  of 
the  natural.  Disease  is  not  natural.  It,  like  death  itself, 
is  the  work  of  an  enemy.  It  is  the  result  of  the  evil 
machinations  of  those  who  hate  men  or  a  man.  But  all 
evil  is  not  wrought  by  spirits  or  magicians.  Even  now 
there  are  material  agencies  of  a  horrible  kind.  In  Australia 
there  are  no  dangerous  wild  beasts ;  but  the  fearful  mind 
of  man  invented  them.  Terror  is  infectious  ;  the  abori- 
gines have  made  many  white  converts.  When  I  was 


208          WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

working  in  the  bush  I  was  often  entertained  with  vivid 
accounts  of  the  Bunyip,  that  imaginary  dreadful  animal 
which,  as  I  was  told,  is  at  least  as  big  as  a  horse,  and  is 
often  to  be  heard  roaring  at  midnight  in  deep  water-holes 
or  rivers.  Although  I  was  then  young,  and  had  not  any 
conception  of  anthropology  or,  indeed,  of  psychology  as 
more  than  words,  I  was  much  struck  by  the  fact  that  a 
large  number  of  uneducated  white  men  were  easily  led 
to  believe  in  the  existence  of  this  creature.  They  were 
highly  superstitious,  and  superstition  is  the  imperfect 
functioning  of  ancient  organic  belief.  If  then  even  death 
is  not  natural  to  the  mind  of  primitive  man,  and  if  he 
attributed  self-acting  malignancy  to  natural  agents,  it 
seems  perfectly  obvious  that  drowning  was  to  him  the 
result  of  a  deliberate  act  on  the  part  of  evil  water,  and 
later,  of  that  water's  malignant  spirit.  No  one  will  need 
to  be  reminded  of  the  legend  of  the  Lorelei,  which  is  but 
a  romantic  survival  of  the  early  beliefs  of  man  connected 
with  streams  and  water.  Even  at  the  present  day,  in 
many  of  the  rivers  of  Germany,  to  bathe  at  a  particular 
time  during  St.  John's  Day  at  midsummer  is  an  exception- 
ally rash  and  dangerous  proceeding.  These  beliefs  are 
found  along  the  Necker  and  the  Saale.  St.  John  himself 
has  really  become  a  river  god,  or  has  taken  the  place  of 
one  and  is,  as  Frazer  tells  us,  especially  greedy  at  Cologne, 
where  he  requires  fourteen  victims,  seven  of  whom  must 
be  drowned  in  the  river,  and  seven  more  who  must  break 
their  necks  by  climbing.  This  second  sacrifice  shows 
that  St.  John  has  also  replaced  a  tree  spirit. 

We  should  entirely  misconceive  the  evolution  of 
ancient  thought  if  we  considered  all  this  was  nothing 
but  a  result  of  the  romantic  imagination.  It  is  hardly 
going  too  far  to  say  that  there  is  nothing  romantic, 


ORIGIN  OF  THERAPEUTIC  BATHING       209 

however  beautiful  if  may  seem,  which  has  not  directly 
descended  from  the  darkest  superstition.  In  a  short 
space  it  may  be  hard  to  convince  the  incredulous  that 
bathing  was  wholly  unnatural  to  primitive  man,  but 
they  may,  at  least,  admit  that  there  is  sufficient  reason 
for  suspecting  that,  however  necessary  water  might  be 
in  the  dawn  of  humanity,  and  perhaps  because  it  was  so 
necessary,  it  was  looked  upon  as  highly  dangerous.  How 
then  did  bathing  and  washing  arise  if  this  was  the  case  ? 
It  is  not  straining  logic  to  infer  that  both  were  the  result 
of  the  very  power  of  water  which  was  feared,  for  to  the 
untrained  imagination  the  very  things  most  to  be  dreaded, 
if  managed  by  a  skilful  wizard,  become  the  most  efficacious 
aids  to  health  or  success  in  life.  All  members  of  the  medical 
profession  still  represent  the  great  magical  element  in  the 
human  mind  as  distinguished  from  the  essentially  religious, 
and  may  be  said  to  take  somewhat  similar  views  as  regards 
drugs  as  the  early  magician  took  with  regard  to  the  em- 
ployment of  dangerous  natural  agents  or  evil  spirits. 
Those  who  prescribe  arsenic,  prussic  acid,  and  many 
dangerous  alkaloids,  should  certainly  be  able  to  understand 
the  attitude  of  the  early  magician  or  medicine  man  who, 
having  discovered  the  powers  of  a  given  spirit,  or  the 
vehicle  in  which  it  inhered,  proceeded  to  employ  it  in 
definitely  arranged  doses  of  ritual.  Among  magicians 
there  were  also  such  differences  of  opinion  and  practice 
as  are  seen  in  modern  medicine,  for  although  bathing  in 
many  parts  of  Europe  is  forbidden,  or  regarded  as  daring 
on  Midsummer  Day,  yet  in  certain  places,  especially  in 
Sweden,  to  bathe  on  the  night  between  Midsummer  Eve 
and  Midsummer  Day  is  especially  healthy  and  curative. 
So  some  physicians  uphold  Nauheim,  others  denounce 
it  and  all  its  pretensions.  It  is  certainly  held  in  Sweden 
14 


210         WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

that  on  this  particular  night  water  has  extraordinary 
magical  therapeutic  qualities.  In  the  old  days  such  a 
midnight  bath  was  especially  supposed  to  strengthen  the 
legs.  It  may,  then,  surely  be  taken  for  granted  that  wash- 
ing was  originally  an  unnatural  and  special  process.  It 
should  not  be  difficult  to  show  doctors  that  it  is  still  as 
hard  to  convert  the  uneducated  on  this  point  as  on  that 
of  ventilation,  since,  as  students,  they  have  had  to  attend 
their  due  number  of  outside  midwifery  cases.  What  then 
was  the  reason  for  washing,  and  how  did  bathing  and 
swimming  become  a  custom  ?  We  may  say  definitely  that 
all  contact  with  water,  except  that  used  for  drinking,  and 
perhaps  even  that,  was  definitely  purificatory  or  medicinal 
or  magical.  Even  the  still  surviving  "  grace  before  meat  " 
is  probably  a  protective  incantation.  But  long  before 
such  ideas  arose  primitive  man  held  that  all  natural  agencies 
were  infinitely  suggestible.  He  hypnotized  them  with 
ritual,  and  they  did  what  they  were  told  to  do  if  the  rite 
was  properly  performed.  Balneologists  may  therefore 
look  upon  themselves  as  recognized  descendants  of  those 
ancient  practitioners  who  employed  powerful  and  dangerous 
waters  in  early  magical  therapeutics. 

The  history  of  evolution,  as  read  in  the  scanty  but 
pregnant  documents  of  anthropology,  is  difficult  to  decipher. 
It  resembles  an  organism  which  shows  obscurely  by  rudi- 
mentary and  dwindling  mechanisms  the  processes  of  past 
growth.  Yet  some  things  are  sure.  In  the  million  or 
two  million  years  of  the  life  of  man  the  animistic  and  pre- 
animistic  periods  cannot  be  divided.  Both  theories  survive 
still,  and  if  animism  is  perishing,  and  the  magician's  view 
is  crescent  once  more  with  the  advance  of  science  not 
falsely  so-called,  it  will  take  immense  eras  of  time  before 
it  becomes  dominant.  It  is,  therefore,  not  inconsistent 


I 

ORIGIN  OF  THERAPEUTIC  BATHING       211 

with  facts  to  mix  "  spirit  "  with  water  pure  and  simple, 
when  these  problems  are  dealt  with.  Some  of  the  beliefs 
of  existing,  or  lately  existing,  savage  races  show  this  con- 
fusion plainly,  and  the  highest  authorities  do  not  always 
find  it  possible  to  distinguish  between  1,000,000  or  2,000,000 
B.C.  Whatever  the  evidence  was  the  truth  would  still  be 
a  matter  of  doubt,  for  even  what  happened  yesterday 
may  be  a  matter  of  conflict  to-day.  Yet  we  cannot  scorn 
evidence  which  is  written  in  the  very  nature  of  the  human 
brain. 

Sacred  wells  are  found  all  over  the  world.  It  is  obvious 
that  they  are  now  sacred  because  they  are  inhabited  by 
powerful  spirits,  or  presided  over  by  conquering  saints  who 
displaced  their  predecessors ;  but  it  must  be  remembered 
that  spirit  is  no  more  than  a  hypothesis  to  account  for 
the  powers  and  actions  of  any  given  thing,  seeing  that 
according  to  savage  theory  nothing  can  happen,  as  we  say, 
"  of  itself."  To  such  a  degree  has  the  belief  in  the  magical 
efficacy  and  danger  of  water  been  impressed  on  man- 
kind, that  many  people  appear  to  have  instincts  concern- 
ing it  or,  if  not  instincts,  certain  semi-instinctive  nervous 
affections  which,  without  any  particular  reason  or,  so 
far  as  can  be  discovered,  without  any  definite  cause, 
become  affections  resembling  phobias.  If  it  is  possible 
to  discover  by  analysis  in  psycho-therapeutics  the  deeply 
hidden  underlying  cause  of  many  nervous  affections,  it 
may  be  that  some  disciple  of  Freud  might  be  able  to  prove 
to  me  that  my  own  dread  of  deep  or  hidden  running 
waters  is  not  instinctive  but  curable  by  discovery.  Never- 
theless, at  the  age  of  four  or  five,  I  had  a  peculiar  horror 
of  wells.  Even  now  I  cannot  approach  a  deep  or  dark 
one  without  mental  disturbance.  This  is  not  due  to  the 
fear  of  depth  or  the  mere  possibility  of  losing  my  life  by 


212          WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

falling  into  it.  When  a  seaman,  I  had  no  fear  of  going 
aloft,  and  when  climbing  in  the  Alps  in  later  life  I  have 
been  suspended  by  a  rope  over  a  precipice  three  thousand 
feet  in  depth  without  any  sense  of  alarm.  But  even  now, 
hidden  running  water  affects  me  with  fear,  and  I  recollect 
that  when,  as  a  boy  of  twelve,  I  read  a  story  in  which 
murdered  people  were  disposed  of  by  being  dropped 
through  a  trap-door  in  the  floor  of  a  house  situated  over 
a  running  stream  I  was  deeply,  and  possibly  permanently, 
affected.  Such  phobias,  whether  instinctive  or  the  result 
of  sunk  and  forgotten  stimuli,  are  not  infrequent.  It 
seems  possible  that  there  is  some  instinct  in  man  with 
regard  to  water,  its  dangers,  its  evil  or  beneficent  effects, 
and  that  this  instinct  is  against  bathing,  not  for  it. 

Among  savages,  as  we  might  reasonably  expect,  water 
cannot  only  achieve  miracles,  but  is  also  liable  to  be 
affected  by  the  conduct  of  men  and,  especially,  the  con- 
duct of  women.  The  savage  ideas  with  regard  to  men- 
struation are  familiar  to  all.  Some  remnants  of  it,  as 
we  know,  still  exist  among  civilized  races ;  but  in  certain 
parts  of  the  world  a  woman  in  that  condition  is  obliged 
to  purify  herself  in  other  ways  than  by  bathing,  for  if 
she  did  bathe  she  would  destroy  the  fish  and  dry  up  the 
river.  By  the  stern  reasoning  of  the  uncultivated  early 
mind  contagious  magic  of  this  sort  is  carried  to  odd  but, 
in  its  way,  logical  extremes.  Such  a  woman  in  many 
places  is  forbidden  to  eat  fish.  This  particular  taboo  is 
only  found  among  races  where  fish  is  of  importance.  In 
most  cases  the  use  of  water  for  purification  seems  to  be 
imperative.  If  menstruation  is  dangerous  and  deadly, 
childbirth,  in  many  cases,  is  still  more  so,  and  a  mis- 
carriage or  a  still-born  child  is  something  that  requires 
more  rites  and  more  water  than  any  other  feminine 


ORIGIN  OF  THERAPEUTIC  BATHING       213 

phenomenon.  Among  some  African  tribes  a  concealed 
miscarriage  seems  to  be  more  deadly  than  anything,  and 
a  woman  who  has  procured  abortion  can  kill  a  man  by 
lying  with  him.  The  medicine  man  makes  a  great  deal 
of  this,  as  we  can  guess.  Earth  from  the  spot  upon  which 
she  has  buried  the  child  has  to  be  put  into  the  river, 
while  the  place  itself  is  sprinkled  with  water,  and  she  has 
to  wash  for  several  days  with  water  in  which  earth  has 
been  mingled.  After  that  we  shall  all  have  rain  again. 
From  examples  of  this  kind,  and  many  others  to  be  found 
in  Frazer's  Golden  Bough,  it  may  be  inferred  that  much 
of  the  use  of  water  is  sympathetic  magic  to  get  rain, 
while  it  must  be  remembered  that  any  unseemly  and 
wrong  act  of  man  or  woman  may  not  only  dry  up  the 
springs,  but  the  very  sky.  There  are,  of  course,  many 
means  of  ensuring  rain.  Twins  are  especially  powerful 
in  this  branch  of  medicine,  and  can  readily  be  obtained 
by  physicians.  On  ancient  principles  it  might  be  argued 
that  there  would  be  little  danger  of  drought  if  obstet- 
ricians, meteorologists,  and  balneologists  worked  in  com- 
bination, although,  in  many  cases  among  certain  tribes 
twins  are  regarded  as  a  highly  dangerous  and  abnormal 
product  :  they  are  even  killed  in  order  to  get  rid  of  them. 
Since  water  is  so  dangerous  and  powerful,  washing 
of  any  kind  often  appears  to  be  something  of  a  ceremony. 
It  is  not  therefore  wonderful  that  washing  the  head,  the 
most  important  part  of  the  body,  is  a  very  serious  matter 
among  many  races,  even  those  called  civilized.  Among 
the  poor  a  bath  of  any  kind  appears  to  be  an  ordeal,  not 
a  luxury.  In  Siam  one  observer  knew  a  native  preacher 
who  washed  his  head  monthly.  The  whole  process  took 
three  days,  one  for  preparation,  one  for  the  tremendous 
act,  and  the  third  for  recovery.  In  old  days  the  King 


214          WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

of  Persia  had  his  head  washed  once  a  year.  Roman 
ladies  washed  their  heads  every  thirteenth  of  August 
upon  Diana's  day.  It  is  probable  that  the  rareness  of 
such  an  act  and  such  a  choice  of  time  show  that  there  was 
magic  in  the  ceremony.  It  was  believed  by  the  early 
Greeks  that  Juno  bathed  once  a  year  for  the  especial 
purpose  of  restoring  her  virginity.  Even  if  the  legend 
is  poetic,  it  must  have  been  founded  on  some  ancient 
belief.  It  is,  perhaps,  regrettable  that,  even  among  the 
poets,  there  appears  to  be  no  reference  to  Jove's  reflec- 
tions on  the  subject.  Bathing  is  a  common  act  with  many 
tribes  before  hunting.  The  Kyaks  of  Burmah  bathe  by 
day  and  night  for  eight  days  before  they  hunt  the  panther, 
and  naturally  enough  bathe  afterwards  to  get  rid  of  the 
panther's  influence  and  avenging  spirit.  Bathing  as  a 
rain  charm  is  even  now  found  in  many  parts  of  Europe, 
especially  in  Russia.  It  is  instructive  to  notice  that  in 
many  cases  the  most  effectual  charm  is  to  throw  some- 
body into  the  water.  This  appears  an  obvious  relic  of 
the  time  when  human  beings  were  sacrificed  to  rivers, 
streams,  and  the  sky  which  gives  rain.  In  Armenia  the 
charm  consists  in  throwing  the  priest's  wife  into  the 
water.  In  the  Islands  of  Celebes  in  Melanesia  a  priest 
bathes  in  order  to  procure  rain.  It  is  a  common  thing 
to  drench  the  lame,  blind,  and  infirm,  with  water.  This 
certainly  brings  rain  and,  if  the  wet  and  afflicted  victim 
curses  with  great  vigour,  no  doubt  the  water  hears  the 
better,  and  the  charm  is  all  the  more  effective.  For, 
god  or  no  god,  it  is  highly  intelligent,  and  not  only 
intelligent,  but  both  kindly  and  savage. 

It  appears  sometimes  possible  to  insult  a  spring  or 
outrage  a  river  and  procure  floods.  In  the  Canary 
Islands  the  Guanche  priestesses  used  to  beat  the  sea 


ORIGIN  OF  THERAPEUTIC  BATHING       215 

with  rods  when  there  was  a  drought.  This  was  very 
efficacious,  for  it  rose  up  in  waves  which  probably 
caused  the  winds  which  brought  clouds  and  rain.  If 
man's  native  capacity  for  putting  the  cart  before  the 
horse,  which  is  still  the  chief  stumbling-block  to  science, 
be  considered,  this  should  surprise  no  one.  In 
Sumatra  and  other  eastern  islands,  when  rain  is  needed, 
crowds  of  women  go  into  pools  and  splash  each  other. 
When  we  see  a  number  of  boys  doing  this  in  our  own 
country  they  are  no  doubt  likely  to  cause  a  great  deal 
of  rain,  for  the  ritual  is  very  powerful.  All  we  have  to 
do  to  bring  rain  is  to  treat  water  in  the  right  way.  That 
is  the  essence  of  magic,  for  the  water  knows  all  about  it, 
and  perhaps  occasionally  confides  in  a  special  medicine 
man  what  the  real  trick  is  which  will  compel  him  to 
increase  his  floods.  However  intelligent  the  water  may 
be,  careful  study  will  make  man  its  master.  Bathing 
before  marriage  among  the  Greeks  was  a  magic  fer- 
tilizing ceremony,  for  water  is  necessary  to  the  growth 
of  all  the  fruits  of  the  earth.  At  Troy,  down  to 
classical  times,  maidens  about  to  marry  bathed  in  the 
Scamander,  familiar  to  us  in  the  Iliad,  and  said  to 
the  river  god,  "  Scamander,  take  my  virginity."  As 
Frazer  points  out,  this  sometimes  led  to  young  men 
bathing  at  the  same  time,  and  if  there  were  any  untoward 
results  they  were  fathered  on  the  river  god.  In  this 
way  demi-gods  seems  to  have  arisen  easily  enough,  since 
a  river  or  a  stream  is  a  very  powerful  deity,  and,  like 
most  other  gods,  gets  his  best  effects  through  his 
generative  powers.  There  are  signs  of  this  in  all 
religions,  though  the  notion  may  be  highly  sublimated. 
It  was  common  in  many  cases  for  women  to  be  given 
to  the  river,  or  sacrificed  in  it,  for  if  he  could  be 


216          WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

afforded  the  opportunity  of  fertilizing  them  he  would 
be  all  the  more  powerful  in  fertilizing  the  earth.  It  may 
be  that  there  are  still  gods  about  some  of  those  springs 
which  are  held  to  cure  sterility  and  impotence,  at  Orezza 
it  may  be,  and  perhaps  at  Buxton,  Wildbad,  and  Gastein. 
There  some  magical  balneologists  call  confidently  on  the 
radium  emanation  which  must  have  been  a  powerful 
water  spirit  even  in  earlier  times.  There  may  be  a  sub- 
stratum of  truth  in  the  most  extravagant  magic  or  myth. 
It  was  said  above  that,  in  some  senses,  nothing  that 
we  can  do  is  really  natural.  If  then  bathing  was 
originally  unnatural  and  dangerous,  especially  to  those 
who  could  not  swim,  and  found  water  and  water  spirits 
deadly,  it  remains  to  be  shown  how  superstition  of  all 
kinds  led  by  devious  paths  to  washing,  to  purification 
and  fertilizing  purposes,  and  hence  by  slow  degrees  to 
medicinal  uses,  and  finally  to  purposes  of  cleanliness. 
Primitive  man  never  washed  to  be  clean,  he  washed  to  get 
rid  of  some  influence  and,  in  spite  of  his  ignorance  and 
his  mistaken  magical  views,  there  is,  in  many  of  these 
savage  customs,  essential  Tightness,  almost  scientific 
accuracy.  If  the  method  of  trial  and  error,  handled 
intelligently,  is  the  main  source  of  most  advances  in 
knowledge,  magic  often  hits  the  actual  truth.  In  Mexico 
the  Huichol  Indians  during  a  drought  take  water  from 
a  sacred  spring  and  carry  it  a  long  distance  to  the  sea. 
Water  from  the  sea  is  carried  and  put  into  the  spring. 
Now,  why  is  this  done  ?  Is  it  possible  that  no  one  sees 
the  reason  at  once  ?  The  water  in  its  alien  surround- 
ings will  obviously  be  uneasy  and  uncomfortable  and 
rise  in  vapour.  What  can  be  more  natural  than  that  ? 
The  water  tries  to  get  home,  but  both  clouds  of  expat- 
riated vapour  meet  in  the  heavens,  cause  clouds,  and 


ORIGIN  OF  THERAPEUTIC  BATHING       217 

fall  as  rain.  Here  actual  facts  are  mixed  with  pure 
animism  and  magic,  for  sea  and  river  renew  each  other 
in  a  perpetual  cycle.  It  is  difficult  to  get  away  from 
proper  magic.  With  knowledge  man  can  do  any- 
thing. By  killing  a  so-called  heaven  bird  the  Zulus 
make  the  very  sky  weep. 

Of  course  many  ceremonies  for  rain  are  properly 
religious,  not  magical.  They  appeal  humbly  to  the 
ear  of  gods.  This,  however,  is  a  late  and  a  degenerate 
plan.  It  is  much  better  to  be  a  sturdy  magician,  and 
get  the  best  of  the  many  powers  of  water  or  of  nature 
by  manly  personal  efforts.  But  enough  has  been  said 
to  show  that  the  savage  mind,  even  of  to-day,  does  not 
regard  water  merely  as  a  useful  liquid.  The  physicists 
say  it  is  a  mixture  of  hydrol,  dihydrol,  and  trihydrol,  and 
they  assert,  moreover,  that  trihydrol  or  ice  must  exist 
even  in  steam.  This  may  be  wonderful,  but  primitive 
man  knew  long  ago  that  water  was  a  very  dangerous 
and  wonderful  fluid,  capable  of  pulling  the  leg  of  any  one 
who  swam  in  it.  He  knew  it  could  even  talk  and 
converse.  Even  now  those  of  us  who  are  not  magicians 
can  fish  a  running  stream  and  hear  it  utter  faint  lost 
words,  although  they  do  not  understand  what  it  says, 
and  cannot  control  it.  With  a  real  magician  it  has  to 
behave,  but  as  there  were  few  thoroughly  instructed 
magicians,  even  in  the  most  ancient  times,  not  many 
will  insist  that  primitive  man  went  for  his  morning  dip 
as  a  matter  of  course.  Water  had  to  be  watched  and 
learnt.  It  was  best  for  a  bather  to  take  a  magician  with 
him  when  he  swam.  For  some  people  it  is  even  now 
best  to  take  one  when  bathing  in  the  sea,  or  he  may  be 
sent  for  to  try  artificial  respiration.  It  may  be  said 
that  nothing  whatever  comes  by  nature.  All  assurance 


218          WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

in  the  face  of  any  dangerous  phenomenon  is  acquired 
with  danger  and  difficulty.  Habit  and  customs  arise  by 
disaster  and  repair,  for  both  are,  in  essence,  construction. 

It  can  now  be  perceived  how  all  these  mixed  and 
mingled  ceremonies  for  magic  purification  by  water 
gradually  crystallized  into  habits.  Little  by  little 
results  occurred  which  were  not  foreseen  either  by 
initiate  or  hierophant.  People  gradually  get  •.">  like 
water.  Among  some  races  swimming  seems  on  the  way 
to  become  truly  instinctive.  Any  great  progress  of 
man  has  almost  always  arisen  through  accident  or  as  a 
side-effect.  All  doctors  are  or  should  be  professors  of 
sanitation  ;  and  cleanliness,  however  it  arises,  has  good 
results.  In  parts  of  the  Pacific  sanitary  science  may 
be  said  to  have  arisen  from  the  practice  of  malignant 
sorcerers  burning  nahak  or  food  refuse  belonging  to  some 
one  in  the  community.  By  contagious  magic  anything 
with  which  a  man  has  been  in  contact  is  part  of  himself  ; 
it  can  therefore  be  hurt  or  tortured,  and  the  man  himself 
will  be  ill.  Certain  malignants  who  understood  this 
used  to  go  about  villages  and  pick  up  little  bits  of  some 
discarded  orange  or  banana  skin.  They  were  burnt  with 
ceremonies,  and  those  who  were  ill  sent  presents  to  the 
sorcerer  to  stop  his  enchantments.  As  a  result  people 
were  careful  to  be  clean.  When  I  was  in  Apia  I 
remember  quite  well  that  it  seemed  remarkably  well  kept. 
So  sanitary  science  arrives  blindfold.  It  was  created  by 
a  desire  to  avoid  the  possible  evil  of  magic,  while  bathing 
comes  no  doubt  out  of  people's  desire  to  use  its  good 
effects  of  purification.  The  loss  of  magic  may  be  a 
disaster.  It  is  for  men  of  science  to  bring  it  back 
purified  as  by  water. 

If    living  water,   with   all  its  senses  and  powers  of 


ORIGIN  OF  THERAPEUTIC  BATHING       219 

magic,  and  the  later  water  gods,  must  be  reckoned 
dangerous  in  the  sea  and  deep  rivers  and  pools,  it  is 
naturally  enough  regarded  as  holy  and  beneficent,  though 
very  delicate  in  its  taste,  in  hot,  dry  countries.  Rivers 
are  obviously  capable  of  fertilizing  the  whole  country. 
By  their  fertilizing  influences  the  feminine  land  pro- 
duces fruit.  If  that  is  so,  why  should  they  not  fertilize 
women  ?  In  the  East  many  rivers  are  capable  of  actual 
procreation  as  I  pointed  out  before.  Women  there- 
fore who  are  barren  take  to  bathing  in  order  to  obtain 
offspring.  If  there  are  sturdy  guardians  of  the  sacred 
water  they  may  possibly  help  a  little  at  times.  The 
virtue  of  wells,  which  leads  to  washing  and  bathing  as 
a  cure  for  barrenness,  is  known  even  in  England  and 
Scotland.  In  Northumberland  there  is  a  sulphur  spring 
which  used  to  work  wonders  in  this  way,  and  may  be 
effective  still  for  all  I  know.  It  is  highly  probable  that 
chalybeate  springs,  such  as  Orezza  in  Corsica,  gained 
this  reputation  justly  in  the  case  of  the  anaemic.  Since 
religion  took  part  in  the  ritual  of  life  the  priesthood, 
the  later  clergy  even,  have  done  their  best  with  pagan 
beliefs,  and  therefore  many  of  those  old  efficacious  pagan 
wells  became  the  property  of  saints.  Not  only  magic  but 
religion  also  works  wonders.  When  they  act  hand  in  hand 
something  is  bound  to  happen.  In  India  sterility  is,  of 
course,  caused  by  evil  spirits.  In  some  places  if  a  surgeon 
were  to  cure  sterility  by  special  surgical  methods,  he 
might  actually  find  himself  deified  locally,  just  as  General 
Nicholson,  who  died  so  nobly  at  Delhi,  was  deified 
on  the  frontier.  It  is  quite  possible  that  a  quasi-deifi- 
cation  or  apotheosis  takes  place  nowadays  with  some 
popular  doctors.  In  other  forms  the  human  mind  works 
as  it  did  of  old. 


220          WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

The  views  dimly  adumbrated  suggest  that  all  bath- 
ing, medicinal  or  purificatory,  is  due  to  the  original  fear 
of  and  belief  in  the  living  nature  of  water,  and  that  the 
reputation  of  all  old  baths  or  bathing,  now  held  to  be 
curative,  was  originally  due  to  magic,  is  strongly  sup- 
ported by  certain  facts  I  observed  while  in  British 
Columbia.  Although  there  are  comparatively  few  Indians 
nowadays  in  the  dry  belt  about  Kamloops,  those 
of  the  Thompson  Indians  who  still  exist  retain  many 
or  most  of  the  beliefs  of  their  ancestors.  I  was 
acquainted  with  few  of  them,  but  while  working  some 
miles  from  Kamloops  I  discovered  among  the  brush  when 
I  went  fishing  some  edifices  looking  like  teepees  or  little 
wigwams  by  the  side  of  the  stream.  They  were  con- 
structed of  sticks  running  up  to  a  point  at  the  top,  teepee 
shape,  and  were  big  enough  to  contain  a  man  sitting 
in  a  crouching  position.  Just  under  him  a  hollow  was 
scraped.  On  inquiry  an  Indian  woman  told  me  that 
they  were  Indian  sweat-houses  or,  as  they  are  other- 
wise named,  keekwillie  holes,  usually  contracted  by 
whites  into  kegly,  which  by  itself  means  "  low."  She 
told  me  that  as  far  as  she  was  aware  they  were  used  for 
medicinal  purposes,  and  I  have  no  doubt  that  in  this 
she  was  correct  but,  as  I  have  discovered  since,  and 
some  of  the  evidence  is  to  be  found  in  The  Golden  Bough, 
they  were  not  originally  constructed  for  any  such  pur- 
pose. The  way  they  were  used  was  this.  A  man  or 
woman  got  inside  them  in  a  crouching  position.  Water 
was  poured  into  the  hole  above  which  the  patient  sat, 
a  rug  or  buffalo  robe  was  draped  over  the  entrance, 
while  the  squaws  outside  heated  stones  in  a  fire,  and 
when  they  were  red-hot  rolled  them  into  the  water. 
That  a  like  bath  in  certain  cases  of  arthritis,  or  so- 


ORIGIN  OF  THERAPEUTIC  BATHING       221 

called  rheumatic  affections,  may  do  good  is  certain; 
but  it  is  quite  impossible  to  believe  that  such  a  mode 
of  healing  was  discovered  except  through  generations 
of  trial  and  error  undertaken  for  other  purposes.  The 
original  reason  of  such  a  ceremony  arose  from  the  desire 
to  free  widows  or  widowers  from  the  probable  results  of 
contact  with  death.  They  required  purification,  and  for 
this  purpose  they  sweated  for  hours,  and  then  were 
plunged,  or  plunged  themselves,  into  the  neighbouring 
creek,  after  which  they  rubbed  themselves  with  small 
branches  of  spruce  which  had  been  stuck  into  the 
ground  close  to  the  little  teepee.  There  is  no  more 
striking  instance  of  the  way  in  which  magic  at  purificatory 
ceremonies  might  easily  have  become  measures  of  pure 
therapeutics.  Such  a  complete  series  of  vaso-motor 
and  peripheral  stimuli  may  well  have  helped  to  cure 
grief.  No  real  anthropologist  will  fall  into  the  modern 
error  of  believing  grief  "  natural."  It  is  due,  as  the 
fathers  of  man  knew  only  too  well,  to  the  actual  influences 
emanating  from  the  dead,  or  their  active  spirits.  In 
view  of  such  facts  I  think  it  may  legitimately  be  in- 
ferred that  curative  baths  of  every  kind  began  by  the 
practice  of  magic,  and  that  all  such  processes  were  re- 
inforced gradually,  as  magic  gave  way  to  religion,  by 
religious  purificatory  methods.  These  same  Thompson 
River  Indians  were  accustomed  if  they  touched  the  dead 
to  bathe  instantly,  or  as  soon  as  possible  afterwards. 
Where  these  keekwillie  holes  do  not  exist  widows  and 
widowers  were  still  obliged  to  bathe.  Bereaved  persons, 
even  in  modern  times,  are  also  compelled  to  pass  four 
times  through  a  patch  of  wild  rose  bushes  in  order  to 
rid  themselves  of  the  ghost.  Not  only  this,  but  it 
is  still  customary  among  these  people  to  cut  branches 


222          WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

of  the  thorny  rose  bushes  and  put  them  in  their  bed  or 
blankets  in  order  to  prevent  the  spirit  returning  to  its 
old  night  quarters. 

When  the  light  that  is  thrown  upon  the  natural 
working  of  the  human  mind  is  considered,  it  seems  that 
the  study  of  anthropology  might  well  be  made  part, 
even  if  a  late  part,  of  the  training  undergone  by  the 
student  of  medicine.  The  old-fashioned  psychology 
founded  on  introspection,  which  depends  for  the  imaginary 
validity  of  its  conclusions  on  the  understanding  of 
words,  though  still  taught,  might  be  dispensed  with  to 
the  advantage  of  all  concerned.  Words  alone,  as 
progress  is  made  from  one  verbal  statement  to  another, 
inevitably  lead  to  wrong  conclusions  by  the  very 
logical  processes  that  they  imply.  It  was  for  this  reason, 
this  double  use  among  men  of  science  of  their  own  ter- 
minology and  the  psychological  use  of  words  with  all 
their  possibilities  of  error,  that  led  to  experiments  on 
conditioned  reflexes.  Such  work  tends  to  show  that 
all  intellectual  labour  is,  in  its  essence  and  in  actual 
method,  a  series  of  reflexes  responding  to  the  peculiar 
environment  of  the  worker.  The  study  of  anthropology 
may  have  very  far-reaching  results  on  the  knowledge 
not  only  of  ancient  practices,  but  also  on  the  conception 
of  the  brain  as  a  mechanism.  In  all  the  branches  of 
magic  touched  on,  the  fact  is  seen  that  mentation  acts 
with  astounding  regularity,  by  way  of  definite  irresist- 
ible reflexes  following  upon  certain  definite  stimuli.  Time 
and  time  again,  in  far  distant  places  between  which 
there  has  been  no  possibility  of  communication,  new  but 
similar  practices  arise.  This  cannot  be  explained  on  any 
theory  but  that  of  the  human  brain  reacting  definitely 
on  like  stimuli.  There  is  no  distinction  to  be  drawn 


ORIGIN  OF  THERAPEUTIC  BATHING       223 

between  chemical  reaction  in  one  part  of  the  world  and 
the  other,  provided  that  the  temperature,  and  perhaps  the 
barometric  pressure,  are  alike.  But  a  study  of  anthro- 
pology must  lead  to  the  influence  that  the  biochemical 
reactions  of  the  brain,  the  complexities  of  which  we  have 
simplified  unduly  by  calling  them  "  the  mind,"  are,  if  we 
take  into  consideration  the  infinitely  greater  complexities 
of  cerebration,  upon  the  same  level  of  certainty  as  mere 
chemical  reactions.  If  this  is  so,  anthropology  itself  will 
be  of  the  greatest  assistance  in  understanding  the  why  and 
wherefore  of  all  human  cerebral  development.  One  science 
helps  another,  for  it  carries  a  lamp ;  but  when  these  lamps 
help  each  other  the  light  may  indeed  be  great. 

Frazer  has  himself  pointed  out  with  much  force  that 
many  of  the  soundest  customs  of  humanity  have  sprung 
out  of  magic.  But  if  it  is  true  that  all  human  progress, 
like  scientific  progress,  depends  on  hypothesis  and  trial  and 
error,  hit  or  miss,  no  one  need  be  surprised  to  learn  that  in 
many  cases  practices  have  arisen  from  magic  which  were, 
or  might  be,  deadly  to  the  race  which  practised  them. 
Although  it  may  be  said  that  the  whole  essence  of  immunity 
lies  in  the  phrase,  "  a  hair  of  the  dog  that  bit  you,"  there 
are  ways  of  taking  the  hair  which  may  be  destructive. 
In  a  cholera  epidemic  in  Egypt  some  forty  years  ago,  or 
perhaps  more,  a  peculiarly  holy  man  died  of  that  disease. 
It  was  obviously  necessary  to  wash  his  sacred  body.  It 
was  therefore  taken  to  a  neighbouring  pool  and  duly  cleansed 
by  his  ardent  followers  and  admirers.  It  will  not  surprise 
even  those  who  have  hitherto  taken  no  interest  in  magic  if 
it  is  suggested  that  so  holy  a  man  by  his  contact  with  the 
water  must  have  given  it  virtues  of  his  own.  This,  at  any 
rate,  was  obvious  to  his  followers,  for,  procuring  utensils  of 
various  kinds,  they  bottled  a  portion  of  this  holy  water  and 


224          WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

took  it  home  and  drank  it.  The  results,  from  a  medical 
point  of  view,  were  deadly.  Perhaps  from  the  religious 
standpoint  they  were  held  to  be  efficacious  when  his  trans- 
lated followers  j oined  their  leader  in  Paradise.  It  is  possible 
to  conceive  that  many  tribes  in  the  history  of  the  world 
when  they  made  a  miss  in  their  experiments  did  not  re- 
cognize it,  and  by  repeating  it  wiped  themselves  out. 
A  fool  is  rewarded  according  to  his  folly,  and  wisdom  is  only 
the  recognition  of  results. 

Something  was  said  above  about  the  general  views 
held  on  animism,  or  the  savage  theory  which  imagines  all 
things  whatsoever  have  their  moving  spirits.  This  is 
not  a  primitive  belief,  for  the  idea  of  spirit  is  an  abstract 
notion.  Before  the  evolving  human  brain  was  capable 
of  such  an  abstraction,  man  no  doubt  held  the  view  that 
all  things  like  themselves  were  alive.  So  deeply  rooted  is 
animism  in  the  human  mind  that  its  last  faint  remains  can 
be  seen  in  many  men  of  scientific  eminence  who  cannot  rid 
themselves  of  the  theory  of  vitalism.  The  savage  vitalistic, 
or  animistic,  view  was  a  simplifying  hypothesis,  and  like 
all  unverified  hypotheses  led  to  extraordinary  results,  not 
all  of  them  without  danger.  But  many  were  certainly 
sound.  All  tabooed  and  unclean  foods  are  held  by  anthro- 
pologists to  have  been  originally  sacred.  They  were  living 
gods.  This  is  undoubtedly  the  case  with  the  pig,  and  in 
those  cases  where  its  once  sacred  totem  qualities  have 
degenerated  into  dislike  and  a  taboo,  such  a  degeneration 
in  hot  countries  may  have  been  for  the  good  of  the  race. 
It  may  even  be  said  that  it  would  have  been  better  if 
some  of  the  notions  of  the  Eskimos  had  survived  among 
other  races.  Among  them  it  is  forbidden  to  mingle  differ- 
ent and  various  flesh  foods  in  one  full  stomach.  The 
gods  and  goddesses  of  the  different  animals  would  be 


ORIGIN  OF  THERAPEUTIC  BATHING       225 

offended  by  the  alien  contact.  Such  views  are  dietetically 
valuable.  In  the  same  way  the  taboos  concerning  mourners 
and  the  insistence  on  ritual  washing  are  obviously  whole- 
some and  scientific,  as  every  bacteriologist  would  admit. 

The  whole  story  of  the  gradual  evolution  of  medical 
theory  and  practice  from  magic  and  religion  is  one  of  un- 
surpassed interest  which  might  well  engage  the  life  and 
energies  of  any  student.  To  such  it  would  soon  seem  clear 
that  magic  in  its  best  and  worst  senses  still  exists  in 
medicine.  It  has  not  been  got  rid  of  by  the  decay  and 
passage  of  the  older  theory  of  signatures.  But,  even  if 
drugs  are  still  exhibited  on  the  merest  grounds  of  tradition, 
the  fine  magical  qualities  of  human  influence  and  sug- 
gestion are  every  day  better  recognized,  and  therefore  no 
physician  need  look  with  contempt  on  his  spiritual  an- 
cestors or  even  on  his  savage  colleagues  in  far-off  countries. 
It  would  be  as  wrong  to  do  so  as  to  scorn  Hippocrates, 
Aristotle,  or  Galen  because  they  did  not  know  what  are 
commonplaces  to  a  first  year's  student.  There  is  no 
new  method  of  discovery  and  no  real  increase  in  the  powers 
of  logic.  Those  who  seek  truth  are  no  more  than  an 
army  marching  in  the  dark  led  by  the  dimmest  sense  of 
orientation.  When  that  is  reached  which  seems  an  insuper- 
able obstacle  their  battalions  hurl  themselves  against  it, 
and  if  one  man  finds  a  weak  spot  and  overcomes  the  diffi- 
culty he  becomes  a  leader  and  is  presently  called  a  genius. 
Such  geniuses  whose  names  and  graves  were  forgotten  a 
million  years  ago  helped  to  bring  man  through  great 
darkness,  but  not  to  any  resting-place.  It  should  be  con- 
solatory to  every  worker  to  remember  that,  even  if  he 
has  not  the  great  and  happy  fortune  to  light  a  new  lamp 
in  the  world,  his  very  errors  and  failures  assist  his  fellows 
and  all  mankind  to  avoid  like  disasters  in  the  time  to  come. 
15 


CHAPTER    IX 

THE  PHYSIOLOGY  OF  CONSCIOUSNESS 

IT  may  seem  desirable  to  develop  shortly  what  was  said 
in  the  last  chapter  on  the  subject  of  psychology.  It 
is  a  common  and  useful  trick  of  the  theologian  to  assert 
that  the  physico-chemical  view  of  "  mental "  action  is 
rapidly  decaying.  Such  writers  greet  with  enthusiasm 
any  popular  and  ignorant  reaction,  even  though  a  similar 
movement,  if  it  militated  against  the  loose  hypothetical 
explanations  they  favour,  would  be  greeted  with  contempt. 
Instead  of  yielding  ground  to  the  religious  philosopher,  those 
who  advocate  so-called  "  materialism  "  are  daily  taking 
positions  from  the  introspectionists,  and  nothing  but  ignor- 
ance of  physiological  advance  permits  them  to  believe 
otherwise.  The  warfare  in  the  body  as  construction 
proceeds  has  its  true  analogues  in  the  modification  of  theory. 
It  is  true  that  certain  leaders  of  thought  have  been  carried 
away  by  their  instincts,  but  this  is  due  to  the  fact  that 
many  men  of  the  highest  eminence  are  only  partially 
educated.  To  think  on  the  lines  of  one  science  alone  is  to 
remain  at  the  mercy  of  uncorrected  traditional  ideas  in 
many  departments  of  thought.  Such  lack  real  mental 
immunity.  It  therefore  follows  that  not  every  man 
of  science  has  the  scientific  mind  which  takes  for 
granted  the  possibility  of  arranging  all  phenomena 
whatsoever  in  ultimate  order.  With  the  region  be- 


228          WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

yond  'phenomena    such   a    mind   has  no  real  concern : 
noumena  may  be  left  as  a  playground  for  those  who  like 
to  waste  their  energy  in  those  arrangements  of  words 
which  are  dignified  by  the  devotees  of  theological  and 
metaphysical  jigsaw  puzzles  with  the  high-sounding  name 
of  the  "  Philosophy  of  the  Absolute."     So  far  as  the 
problems  of  space  and  time  are  concerned  they  may  be 
dealt  with  by  mathematicians,  and  what  is  said  of  them  by 
philosophers,  with  no  knowledge  of  science,  can  be  safely 
ignored.     Yet,  owing  to  early  influences,  even  men  highly 
endowed  with  the  scientific  spirit  are  apt  in  their  haste 
to  give  away  to  the  enemy  positions  which  afterwards 
have  to  be  recaptured  at  great  cost.     This  has  certainly 
been    the    case    with    "  the    mystery  of  consciousness." 
The   many   hundreds   of   years   partially   wasted  in   the 
verbal  gymnastics  of  the   schoolmen  and  their  modern 
congeners    and    descendants    have     naturally   left    their 
mark.     That  they  were  not  wholly  a  waste  may  be  ad- 
mitted, since  reasoning  accurately  even  on  empty  major 
premisses  is  a  great  mental  exercise ;  but  so  far  as  the 
conclusions  drawn  became  more  than  mere  logical  divi- 
dends their  effect  has  been  harmful.     To  free  the  mind 
from  early  impressions  is  never  wholly  possible,  and  the 
assumptions  of  the  nursery  may  partially  determine  the 
mental  action  of  the  wisest,  just  as  ancient  instincts  in  a 
race  produce  effects  of  which  the  cause  may  be  totally 
unknown.     As  a  result  it  not  unfrequently  happens  that 
consciousness   is    admitted   to   be   an   ultimate  mystery, 
although  every  reaction  of  the  brain  points  clearly  to 
the  fact  that  it  is  but  a  definite,  though  highly  delicate, 
response     to    the     internal    and    external    environment. 
Huxley  himself,  being  then,  no  doubt,  under  the  influence 
of  theories  of  mental  and  physical  parallelism,  incautiously 


PHYSIOLOGY  OF  CONSCIOUSNESS          229 

admitted  that  the  problems  connected  with  it  were  im- 
possible, or  unlikely,  to  be  solved.  A  very  slight  study 
of  the  history  of  science  reveals,  however,  that  the  prob- 
lems which  are  incapable  of  solution  frequently  receive  it 
before  the  ink  of  the  incredulous  is  dry,  or,  at  least,  before 
it  fades. 

There  is  no  need  to  go  into  the  work  done  on  cerebral 
organization  and  construction.  The  names  of  Hunter, 
Willis,  Horsley,  Hughlings  Jackson,  Gaskell,  Head,  and 
Ferrier,  to  speak  of  but  few,  are  sufficient  witnesses 
to  the  labour  bestowed  upon  the  brain.  With  regard, 
however,  to  the  special  phenomena  lumped  together  by 
the  use  of  the  word  "  consciousness,"  it  may,  perhaps,  be 
admitted  that  Pavlov  did,  at  the  very  least,  just  as  useful 
work.  He  reduced  such  obscurities  as  "  states  of  con- 
sciousness "  into  multiplex,  or  conditioned,  reflexes,  and 
showed  that  the  nomenclature  of  most  psychologists  was 
at  once  otiose  and  misleading.  It  is  too  seldom  observed 
that  the  mysteries  of  "  mind  "  are  no  more  than  the  result 
of  ignoring  physiology  and  the  almost  ineradicable  in- 
stinct of  man  to  consider  that  a  word  represents  a  simple 
thing.  As  soon,  however,  as  "  mental  states  "  are  resolved 
into  reflexes  among  some  of  the  10,000,000,000  cortical 
neurons  it  becomes  obvious  that  the  word  "  mind  "  is  no 
more  than  shorthand  for  neuronal  action  and  interaction 
when  influenced  from  the  outside  or  by  internal  stimuli. 
There  is  no  such  thing  known  in  "  consciousness  "  as  the 
brain  acting  as  a  whole.  The  cells  may  be,  and  probably 
are  always,  in  a  state  of  tone,  for  they  would  otherwise 
degenerate ;  but  very  few  of  them  can  produce  motor 
reactions,  of  any  kind,  at  the  same  time.  Those  reflexes 
result  in  action,  even  the  action  of  "  thought,"  which  are 
stimulated  to  discharge,  or  at  the  least,  excited  to  a  state 


230         WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

of  tone  almost  sufficient  to  result  in  discharge.  Tonus 
being  a  state  of  readiness  for  activity,  all  nerves  stimulated 
by  conduction  from  the  discharging  neurons  may  raise 
verbal  centres  to  a  condition  near  to  a  like  discharge.  In 
such  cases  we  have  verbal  thinking,  i.e.  impulse  not  dis- 
charged over  motor  tracts  leading  to  speech.  These 
relations  of  raised  or  lowered  tone,  of  inhibition  or  ex- 
citation, are  obviously  neuronal  functions,  and  all 
"  thought  "  is  the  impulse  towards  discharge  in  reactions, 
forced,  useful,  or  pleasant,  under  definite  stimuli  exciting 
complex  reflex  arcs. 

Such  views,  it  seems,  are  easily  grasped  when  we  deal 
with  the  lower  animals,  but  many  find  it  difficult  to  believe 
that  the  poet's  "  consciousness  "  when  he  writes  a  poem 
is  in  fact  a  reaction  to  his  internal  and  external  environ- 
ment, and  that  the  poem  is  truly  as  much  a  reaction 
product  as  the  bark  of  a  dog  or  the  spring  of  a  tiger. 
There  is,  however,  no  real  gap  discoverable  between  the 
reflex  responses  of  an  amoeba,  whose  irritability  as  proto- 
plasm is  of  the  same  order,  though  less  specialized,  as 
that  of  a  neuron,  and  all  the  spinal  and  cerebral  reflexes 
of  a  genius.  Such  reflexes  are,  however,  more  and  more 
complex  and  "  conditioned,"  i.e.  dependent  on  other 
reflexes  and  much  more  easily  inhibited.  In  such  a  case 
inhibition  probably  means  no  more  than  a  failure  of 
some  synapse  to  act,  while  excitation  which  results  in 
such  original  graphic  verbal  reactions  as  a  poem  is  the 
functioning  of  new  nerve  dendrons  hitherto  not  joined 
up,  and  fresh  combinations  of  older  ones  which  have 
functioned  before. 

Certainly  the  case  for  such  conclusions  has  been  of 
late  immeasurably  strengthened  by  Pavlov.  This  physio- 
logist was  led  to  make  his  experiments  by  finding  that 


PHYSIOLOGY  OF  CONSCIOUSNESS          231 

the  moment  even  physiologists  touched  "  mental " 
phenomena  they  adopted  another  language  than  that 
used  in  their  own  work.  He  found  by  experiments  on 
the  salivary  glands  that  reflex  excitations  could  be  made 
to  depend  on  linked  reflex  excitations — that  is,  by  reflexes 
conditioned  by  other  reflexes.  A  dog's  glands  can  be 
educated  to  act  not  only  by  the  presentation  of  food  but 
on  the  excitation  of  them  by  the  sound  of  a  bell.  A  bell 
of  a  few  more  or  less  vibrations  fails  to  produce  salivary 
action.  A  time  factor  can  be  introduced  and  the  glands 
made  to  act  five  minutes,  say,  after  the  bell  is  struck. 
At  each  introduction  of  a  new  element  into  the  linked 
reflexes  the  process  is  more  and  more  "  conditioned,"  and 
more  and  more  easily  interrupted  by  some  accidental  or 
purposed  stimulation.  This  complex  of  reflexes  becomes 
at  last  "  intelligence." 

It  is  commonly  said  that  reflexes  are  nervous  units. 
It  is,  however,  sounder  to  regard  the  real  nervous,  or 
cerebral,  or  "  mental  "  unit  as  the  native  irritability  of 
the  cell.  If  this  is  so  the  rise  from  reaction  in  the  cell  to 
a  simple  reflex,  and  from  that  to  reflexes  conditioned  by 
others,  and  further  to  the  most  complex  set  of  reflexes 
imaginable  in  the  highest  brain,  should  show  no  break. 
That  we  are  unable  to  foretell  the  reaction  in  the  cases 
of  high  reflex  combinations  goes  for  nothing.  It  is, 
indeed,  our  incapacity  to  do  so  which  shows  the  nature 
of  words.  They  are  sound  signals  which  produce  or  tend 
to  produce  reactions,  thus  becoming,  on  this  analysis,  links 
in  reflex  reactions.  Their  motor  products  depend  entirely 
on  the  nature  and  quality  of  the  organism  concerned. 
Thus  to  mention  the  word  "  faery  "  in  a  mixed  gathering 
may  produce  a  "  fairy "  story  from  one  and  induce 
another  to  quote  "  perilous  seas  and  faery  lands  forlorn." 


232          WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

If  then  such  compound  conditioned  reflexes  are  the 
cortical  apparatus  for  keeping  in  touch  with  the  environ- 
ment, with  all  its  excitations  and  inhibitions,  presented 
to  it  at  the  moment,  it  is  reflexly  forced  upon  us  to  declare 
that  "  consciousness  "  is  the  massed  sensations  of  the 
thinker,  or  such  a  complex  of  them  as  may  be  most  strongly 
stimulated.  Since  "  memory  "  is  nothing  but  the  estab- 
lishment of  nervous  tracts,  and  the  act  of  memory  a  stimu- 
lation passing  over  a  particular  synapse  formerly  opened 
up,  we  can  understand  how  "  self -awareness,"  which  is 
really  "  memory,"  consists  of  a  set  of  opened  tracts  which 
stimulate  other  tracts,  possibly  motor  ones,  which  finally 
may  pass  into  reflexly  induced  speech  or  writing.  "  Self- 
awareness  "  thus  sinks  away  from  us  on  acting.  That 
pointed  and  consecutive  speech,  dealing  with  the  situa- 
tion, may  occur  reflexly,  is  obvious  to  those  who  have 
seen  operations  performed  under  light  anaesthesia  in 
which  the  reflexes  are  not  abolished.  The  patient  may 
feel  pain  and  abuse  the  surgeon  in  the  vilest  language. 
The  good  public  speaker  is  one  who  forgets  himself,  ceases 
to  be  inhibited  by  fears  as  to  his  success,  speaks  over 
short  paths  rather  than  long  ones,  and  loses  "  self-aware- 
ness "  in  semi-automatic  or  reflex  emotional  or  logical 
utterance.  What  he  says  is  rapid  adaptation  to  his 
environment. 

The  difficulty  experienced,  even  by  some  men  of 
scientific  training,  in  accepting  such  views  of  "  conscious- 
ness "  as  are  suggested  above,  is  undoubtedly  a  reflex 
cerebral  state,  induced  in  early  life  by  the  stimulation 
or  inhibition  of  words  or  repeated  sound  signals  which 
have  established  regularly  working  reflexes.  They  have 
been  taught  to  respond  to  these  in  a  certain  way,  i.e. 
their  education  has  opened  up  tracts  of  nervous  discharge 


PHYSIOLOGY  OF  CONSCIOUSNESS          233 

which  prevent  further  analysis  by  inhibiting  the  opening 
of  fresh  neuronal  paths.  This  is  a  phenomenon  known 
to  psychiatrists  as  "  resistance."  But  though  "  re- 
sistance "  to  fresh  stimulation  taught  in  the  shape  of 
combinations  of  word  signs  or  sound  symbols  is  frequently 
accompanied  with  dislike  of  the  "  idea,"  by  which  we 
must  understand  a  new  set  of  reactions,  it  may  be  with- 
out any  such  dislike,  and  may  represent  only  a  temporary 
incapacity,  under  the  weak  stimulation  of  an  inadequate 
verbal  presentment  of  convincing  analysis,  to  establish 
new  nervous  connections.  The  difficulties  of  dealing 
satisfactorily  to  all  with  such  a  subject,  and  the  right 
way  to  attempt  it,  may  be  suggested  by  considering  that 
the  very  word  "  convincing "  just  used  is  obviously 
shorthand  or  a  symbol  for  the  reflex  opening  of  fresh 
neuronal  paths  which  offer  great  synaptic  resistance. 
Such  views  explain  the  physiological  reasons  that  it  is  so 
difficult  to  convince  the  old.  In  them  synaptic  resistance 
tends  to  become  synaptic  block.  The  opposed  pheno- 
menon is  observed  in  fixed  ideas,  and  in  mania,  where 
over  certain  tracts  there  are  what  may  be  called  "  fused  " 
synapses  in  which  the  gemmules  for  pathological  reasons 
do  not  retract  until  exhaustion  occurs.  I  suggest,  then, 
that  when  a  man  like  Huxley,  a  very  powerful  stimulator, 
asserts  consciousness  to  be  a  mystery,  such  an  asser- 
tion is  likely  to  inhibit  speculation  on  the  part  of  others, 
such  inhibition  taking  the  form  of  saying,  "  if  a  brain 
like  Huxley's  found  it  so,  is  it  likely  that  I  should  ever 
get  to  understand  it  ?  "  It  must,  however,  be  remembered 
that  the  whole  history  of  science  might  be  mapped  out 
in  a  series  of  statements  as  too  "  impenetrable  mysteries  " 
which  have  proved  themselves  capable  of  easy  solution. 
I  remember  being  much  struck  by  the  objection  of  an 


234         WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

otherwise  capable  man  of  science  to  a  view  of  my  own, 
which  was  afterwards  proved  by  experiment  to  be  correct, 
on  the  ground  that  if  it  were  true  it  would  have  been 
found  out  before. 

The  resistance  or  dislike  to  the  analysis  of  conscious- 
ness into  combined  conditioned  reflexes  seems  particu- 
larly strong  where  it  deals  with  the  emotions.  To  analyse 
a  religious  attitude  into  reflex  correspondence  with  an 
imaginary  or  constructed  environment,  such  construction 
being  in  fact  the  co-ordination  of  rigid  nervous  tracts, 
is  regarded  as  "materialism,"  or  a  gross  incapacity  for 
taking  "spiritual"  views.  Such  opinions,  however,  are 
not  worth  combating,  as  they  are  usually  held  by  those 
without  physiological  knowledge.  But  those  who  merely 
regard  consciousness  as  a  mystery,  probably  not  capable 
of  solution,  often  find  similar  difficulties.  They  may  say, 
for  instance,  that  though  emotion  and  volition  have  their 
concomitants  in  molecular  changes  in  brain  matter,  no 
material  qualities,  such  as  weight  and  occupancy  of  space, 
can  be  predicated  of  them.  An  emotion,  however,  is 
only  a  "mental"  entity  till  it  is  discovered  to  be  nervous 
discharges  over  certain  short  circuits  in  the  brain  through 
which  the  motor  impulses  of  instincts  have  passed  during 
long  stages  of  evolution,  all  such  discharges  being  accom- 
panied by  vaso-motor  phenomena. 

If  this  is  so,  and  no  physiologist  will  deny  it,  space 
and  position,  vascular  dilation  and  contraction,  and  the 
possible  measurement  of  nervous  discharges  across  resist- 
ing synapses  can  actually  be  predicated  of  the  highest 
emotions.  An  emotion  is  thus  no  entity,  it  is  not  a  thing 
properly  to  be  described  in  a  word,  though  it  may  be 
designated  by  such  a  symbol  and  act  as  such  in  a  reflex 
chain  of  suggestion :  it  is,  in  fact  a  very  complex  bodily 


PHYSIOLOGY  OF  CONSCIOUSNESS          235 

and  cerebral  state,  easily  distinguished  from  a  purely 
"intellectual"  state,  which  is  a  cortical  process  not  going 
on  over  ancient  instinctive  paths,  but  over  the  pyramidal 
tract,  through  the  cells  of  Betz,  without  as  a  rule  any 
vaso-motor  disturbances.  Such  disturbances,  however, 
often  follow  upon  intellectual  discovery  as  the  results 
of  attainment  and,  to  speak  in  terms  of  energetics,  of 
energy  suddenly  freed.  Kepler's  emotion  on  being  "  freed ' ' 
by  his  great  discovery  is  a  good  example. 

However  little  such  an  analysis  may  commend  itself 
to  the  more  ancient  psychologist  who  lives  in  a  world 
of  words,  it  is  certain  that  it  is  only  upon  such  lines  that 
scientific  explanation  can  proceed.  It  enables  the  physio- 
logist to  do  work  without  being  confused  by  the  necessity 
of  defining  terms  relative  to  consciousness  about  which 
no  two  philosophers  are  at  one.  So  far  as  science  is 
concerned  it  may  be  taken  for  granted  that  cerebral  re- 
sponse to  the  internal  and  external  environment,  acting 
reflexly  to  excitation  and  inhibition,  is  not  correlated 
with  consciousness,  but  is  actually  consciousness  itself, 
including  the  subconscious  and  unconscious :  the  sub- 
conscious being  tracts  in  nervous  tone  which  may  easily 
discharge  themselves  in  motor  reactions  at  any  time  if 
normally  stimulated,  while  the  unconscious  consists  of 
other  tracts  only  resulting  directly  in  motor  reactions 
under  abnormal  excitation  or  pathological  conditions. 


CHAPTER   X 

THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  TRAINING  AND  ORGANIZATION  l 

IT  may  be  that  some  of  you  were  alarmed  by  the  word 
"  Psychology  "  appearing  in  the  title  of  a  lecture 
which  you  had  orders  to  attend.  Possibly  it  opened  up 
to  you  the  prospect  of  illimitable  boredom.  I  own  that 
it  is  a  subject  which,  with  very  little  care,  can  be  made  both 
boring  and  obscure.  Many  writers  when  dealing  with 
the  mind  obtain  the  two  results  with  ease.  But  straight- 
forward psychology  is  not  metaphysical  word- juggling, 
and  I  hope  to  make  what  I  have  to  say  as  clear  as  orders 
should  be  made  by  those  who  issue  them.  Psychology 
is  nothing  more  than  the  way  our  minds  work,  and  I  should 
like  you  to  remember  that  the  word  "  mind  "  is  just  useful 
shorthand  for  the  working  of  the  brain.  All  of  us  have 
some  notion  of  what  affects  us  or  leaves  us  cold.  We 
respond  to  stimulation,  we  act  or  refuse  to  act.  You 
know  what  you  like  and  what  you  dislike.  Perhaps  you 
even  know  why  you  are  here  at  all.  Certainly  you  would 
not  have  been  at  a  lecturer's  mercy  if  you  had  not  been 
moved  by  your  minds,  your  brains,  towards  common 
national  ends.  Many  different  reasons  may  have  in- 

1  Lecture  delivered  at  Purfleet  Camp  to  the  members  of  the  O.T.C. 
(Capt.  B.  C.  Lake,  O.C.)  and  the  officers  of  the  7th  Reserve  Brigade.  1915. 
Although  it  is  not  an  integral  portion  of  this  book  I  have  given  it  a  place 
for  reasons  which  will  possibly  be  obvious  to  those  interested  alike  in 

science  and  in  psychology,  now  rapidly  becoming  a  science. 

337 


238          WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

fluenced  you,  but  on  the  whole  I  take  it  that  what  moved 
you  most  was  a  sense  of  duty  combined  with  a  desire  for 
the  splendid  natural  activity  of  a  military  life.  Yet  behind 
all  your  feelings  there  was  something  else,  something  bigger 
and  something  which,  though  really  obscure,  is  not  beyond 

j  comprehension.  Most  of  us  in  life  do  things,  and  believe 
we  can  say  why.  We  use  our  intellect  to  make  apologies 
for  our  own  actions,  and  sometimes  succeed  in  the  task  to 
our  own  satisfaction.  And  still  we  may  wonder  in  our 
hearts  whether  there  was  not  some  instinct  in  us  that 

'  was  the  real  motive  power.  Again,  many  of  you  must 
have  felt  the  heavy  weight  of  our  economic  civilization, 
and  to  become  a  soldier  is,  in  a  way,  to  get  back  to  nature. 
You  therefore  come  here  to  be  trained,  and  to  learn  to 
train  others,  in  the  very  ancient  organization  called  an 
army.  Busy  as  you  may  be,  you  should  be  free  from  many 
of  the  worries  besetting  those  who  are  all  "  on  their  own." 
Discipline  and  control  may  obstruct  some  activities,  but 
they  leave  others  free.  Young  men  especially  like  change. 
Here  you  certainly  get  it,  sometimes  to  your  surprise. 
Besides  these  reasons  for  your  actions  there  is  the  other 
reason  which  I  hope  presently  to  make  plain.  As  a  hint, 
it  may  be  said  that,  though  in  some  ways  you  are  now 
more  yourselves  than  you  ever  seemed,  in  another  and  a 
very  strange  and  not  unpleasing  way  you  are  less.  You 
will  exercise  powers  you  never  had  yet,  and  will  be  re- 
strained in  ways  you  would  once  have  resented  fiercely. 

Let  me  phrase  it  plainly.  You  arc  here  as  grist  for 
the  military  mill.  You  have  to  go  through  the  machine. 
The  reason  of  many  of  the  processes  through  which  you 
are  put  are  probably  obscure  to  you.  Some  seem  a  little 
absurd,  some  too  severe,  some,  perhaps,  totally  unintel- 
ligible. You  wonder  why  you  are  being  trained  in  such 


TRAINING  AND  ORGANIZATION  239 

a  way,  and  why  it  takes  so  long.  Yet,  though  you  may 
have  found  many  of  your  experiences  exasperating,  the 
experience  of  others  has  shown  them  to  be  just  what  is 
needed.  Your  very  exasperation  is  part  of  your  course. 
You  have  to  control  it.  Being  put  under  arrest  has  helped 
to  make  many  things  clear  to  those  who  can  learn.  Not 
all  of  your  superiors  know  the  deep  mental,  or  cerebral, 
side  of  the  processes  of  training  and  organization  but, 
since  an  army  is  a  continuing  live  organism,  they  have 
tradition,  military  history,  and  their  own  experience  in 
the  making  of  a  company  or  battalion,  which  show  them 
that  certain  results  follow  on  the  adoption  of  particular 
methods.  We  all  use  words  and  phrases  of  which  the 
real  meaning  may  be  unknown  to  us.  We  often  employ 
the  French  phrase,  and  speak  of  esprit  de  corps  as  the  end 
and  aim  of  training.  The  "  spirit,"  as  we  say,  makes 
the  body  live  and  makes  it  one.  This  is  shorthand,  but 
it  is  true.  Every  soldier  knows  it,  but  not  every  one  could 
tell  us  why,  even  if  he  has  p.s.c.  after  his  name.  If  our 
methods  are  right  our  reasons  may  not  matter.  But  as 
no  methods  are  perfect,  even  when  moulded  by  age-long 
tradition,  knowledge  of  underlying  causes  may  help  to 
improve  them. 

I  spoke  of  an  army  as  an  organism.  It  exists  as  a 
body,  it  has  members,  tools,  a  brain,  a  nervous  system, 
and  all  are  used  to  ensure  that  certain  effects  are  produced. 
An  army,  too,  can  suffer  and  rejoice.  It  can  become  irre- 
sistible by  continued  success  ;  it  can  suffer  panic,  and  it 
can  die.  These  words  are  not  mere  illustrations.  You 
and  your  officers  and  men  are  living  parts  of  a  living  thing, 
even  though  the  staff  may  never  trouble  to  look  upon  an 
army  in  that  light.  They  may  not  be  so  self-conscious. 
Perhaps  that  is  all  the  better  for  them.  It  is  best  not  to 


240    WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

think  of  ourselves.  Note  well  then  when  a  part  of  an  army 
begins  to  think  only  of  itself,  and  by  itself,  there  is  danger 
of  disaster,  perhaps  of  dissolution.  A  healthy  man  never 
thinks  about  himself  as  parts.  Only  sick  people  do  that. 
When  all  things  work  together  easily  that  is  health.  Your 
officers  know  this  is  true  of  a  company  or  a  battalion,  and 
of  themselves.  If  the  nervous  system  is  out  of  hand,  the 
whole  body  goes  to  pieces.  They  are  the  nervous  system 
of  the  part  they  command,  just  as  the  Headquarters 
Staff  is  of  the  whole.  It  is  well  to  know  this,  but  not  to 
brood  on  it.  Knowledge  should  sink  in  and  become 
wisdom — a  proved  instinct.  If  the  Staff  knows  this  prac- 
tically it  will  work  all  the  better,  with  greater  certainty. 
If  there  is  friction  and  separation  at  Headquarters  the 
whole  body  suffers. 

Now,  although  the  training  and  organization  of  an 
army  make  a  special  branch  of  study,  all  organized  bodies 
can  be  analysed  by  similar  methods.  At  first  it  may 
seem  difficult  for  you  to  understand  that  there  is  a  real 
resemblance,  a  true  analogy,  between  the  workings  of  a 
committee  or  corporation  of  any  kind  and  an  army. 
Nevertheless  it  is  true  that  an  army  is  something  very 
different  from  the  individuals  who  compose  it,  just  as  a 
committee  or  any  corporate  body  is  different  from  its 
members.  An  organized  body  with  a  head  and  subor- 
dinates will  do  things  which  none  of  its  members  would 
or  could  attempt.  Motives  affect  it  differently.  The  whole 
is  another  thing  than  the  units.  If  the  motives  and 
stimuli  affecting  it  are  of  a  high  and  noble  order  this 
organized  body  will  move  instinctively  towards  great 
things  that  might  not  have  moved  its  members  singly. 
Their  better  instincts  are  appealed  to.  They  would  be 
ashamed  to  show  they  think  of  themselves.  In  such  an 


TRAINING  AND  ORGANIZATION  241 

atmosphere  a  mean  man  may  become  generous.  When 
he  has  gone  away  he  may  be  himself  again,  and  contemplate 
the  counterfoil  in  his  cheque-book  with  rueful  astonish- 
ment. If  the  motives  moving  such  a  body  are  not  high 
but,  let  us  say,  purely  financial,  it  may,  on  the  other  hand, 
do  things  which  come  to  be  regarded  by  the  very  men  who 
voted  for  them  as  utterly  detestable  from  their  individual 
point  of  view.  Conceivably  such  a  corporation  might 
discharge  an  old  servant  without  pension,  and  the  very 
man  who  moved  the  resolution  might  possibly  support  him 
afterwards.  For  such  reasons,  however  shortly  and  roughly 
presented  to  you,  we  may  infer  that  any  organized  body 
is  a  real  organism  because  it  acts  differently  from  its  units, 
and  has  different  motives  and  different  ends.  Purely 
individual  training  is  useless  for  bringing  out  the  qualities 
and  powers  for  which  such  a  body  has  been  created. 

Such  considerations  as  these  have  a  great  application  to 
your  physical  training.  Many  of  you  thought  you  were 
well  and  strong  when  you  came  here.  Perhaps  you  know 
now  that  you  were  neither.  You  have  found  out  what 
health  is.  It  is  being  all  one,  it  is  forgetting  you  have  parts, 
since  all  things  in  you  work  together.  A  breakdown  in 
your  health  might  mean  a  breakdown  months  hence  in 
the  moral  health  of  a  platoon,  and  a  disaster.  Your 
physical  well-being  is  essential  not  only  to  yourselves. 
There  are  glands  in  your  body  which  give  you  courage 
in  emergencies.  If  the  adrenal  glands  fail  you  might  be 
cowards.  When  training  reaches  a  high  pitch  and  you 
feel  the  strain  of  it  you  will  remember  that  a  greater  strain 
must  come  on  you  later.  That  is  why  an  army  is  trained 
severely  and  the  incapable  are  weeded  out.  A  breakdown 
of  one  may  mean  the  breakdown  of  many.  In  the  face 
of  difficulty  we  need  to  be  well  and  strong,  and  cheerful 
16 


242         WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

companions.  Thus  we  give  out  encouragement  as  a  gland 
may  yield  powerful  stimulation  in  danger. 

You  will  see  then  that  the  beginnings  of  organization 
exist  in  all  of  us  :  in  the  whole  human  race.  We  are 
gregarious,  unless  we  are  ill ;  we  commonly  associate 
together  for  ends  that  appeal  to  us  ;  we  form  clubs  and 
societies.  It  is  in  our  nature  to  do  so.  Without  desire 
of  common  action  there  could  be  no  social  life  and  no  pro- 
gress. Altruism,  or  thought  for  others,  exists  in  us  all, 
though  perhaps  only  as  a  seed  :  we  are  always  prepared 
to  make  some  kind  of  sacrifice  for  common  ends.  We 
cannot  live  alone. 

Many  of  you  here  have  been  Public  School  boys. 
English  schoolmasters  maintain  that  the  chief  end  of  a 
school  is  not  direct  preparation  for  actual  life  but  the  pro- 
duction of  character.  How  far  they  succeed  I  should  not 
like  to  say  in  this  place,  but  so  far  as  they  do  it  is 
because  the  boys  are  trained  to  work  in  teams  and 
taught  to  sacrifice  their  ease  and  leisure,  and  even  their 
hopes  of  distinction,  to  the  honour  and  glory  of  their 
school.  So  the  essential  thing  is  not  mere  production  of 
what  is  commonly  called  an  upright  character.  Such  a 
person  may  be  incapable  of  working  with  others.  What  is 
wanted  is  the  production  of  a  character  as  a  fit  part  of  an 
organization  which  can  subdue  all  self-regarding  instincts 
and  impulses.  If  a  young  cricketer  is  a  sound  member  of 
his  school,  being  turned  down  for  the  First  Eleven  may, 
indeed,  be  bitter,  but  if  he  recognizes  it  as  just  he  takes  it, 
as  we  say,  like  a  man.  For  to  be  "  like  a  man  "  is  a  great 
thing.  It  implies  endurance,  courage,  self-restraint.  Such 
a  boy  learns  to  trust  in  the  judgment  of  others  who  have 
proved  themselves,  and  he  knows  that  loud  revolt  is  not 
playing  the  game.  Submission  of  this  order  is  necessary 


TRAINING  AND  ORGANIZATION  243 

to  all  of  us,  but  most  of  all  to  soldiers.  We  see  that  in  a 
good  school  there  are  all  the  rough  essentials  of  organ- 
ization and  training.  It  is  a  corporate  body,  and  the  boys 
when  at  school  are  different  from  what  they  are  at  home. 
They  think  differently  and  feel  differently,  and  that  means 
they  are  different.  Thus  parents  and  schoolmasters  may 
have  very  different  opinions  of  the  same  boy,  and  what  is 
more,  the  parent  may  be  right  if  his  son  chooses  some  more 
solitary  profession,  while  the  master  may  be  right  if  the 
boy  goes  into  the  army  or  navy.  Many  of  you,  no  doubt, 
remember  the  sense  of  loyalty  to  your  own  school  which 
grew  up  in  spite  of  the  brutality  of  a  few  of  your  fellows, 
and  also  in  spite  of  the  peculiar  hostility  which  you  felt 
towards  some,  if  not  all,  the  masters.  And  yet,  if  they 
were  at  all  decent,  you  would  have  been  ready  to  maintain 
they  were  better  "  beasts  "  than  those  of  any  other  school. 
This  feeling  of  semi-hostility  between  the  trainer  and  the 
trained  is,  perhaps,  essential  for  good  results.  It  implies 
resisting  stuff  in  those  who  are  being  moulded  and  organized. 
With  good  tools  you  can  forge  anything  out  of  steel,  but  not 
much  can  be  made  of  putty. 

Possibly  you  now  begin  to  recognize  some  strange 
resemblance  between  your  own  feelings  as  officers  in  train- 
ing with  those  you  had  as  a  schoolboy.  Day  by  day  you 
are  learning  to  suppress  that  part  of  yourself  which  for  ever 
contends  you  have  the  right  to  do  exactly  as  you  please. 
You  do  not  go  about  insisting  on  your  rights.  It  is  not 
good  form  to  do  so,  and  that  means  it  does  not  really  pay 
any  one  to  be  selfish.  Perhaps,  too,  you  have  begun  to 
see  why  you  must  be  young  to  be  trained.  The  very  old 
are  mostly  set  and  rigid,  and  cannot  easily  rid  them- 
selves of  ancient  ideas.  At  any  school  a  boy  who  has  not 
been  trained  to  obedience  at  home  has  a  hard  time  before 


244          WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

he  learns  that  somebody  a  year  his  senior  is  not  only 
likely  to  tell  him  to  do  a  thing  but  to  see  that  it  gets  done. 
In  training  for  the  army  there  is,  of  course,  a  great  advance 
of  thought  over  a  school,  for  you  come  here  duly  prepared 
to  surrender  your  personalities  or  part  of  them.  But 
even  so  it  is  in  many  cases  a  very  difficult  process.  You 
recognize  that  it  is  necessary,  but  perhaps  you  do  not  see  the 
mental  side  of  things  which  makes  it  necessary.  Yet  to 
know  why  makes  all  things  easy.  I  dare  say  you  have 
already  compared  in  your  minds  the  curious  semi-hostility 
there  often  is  between  the  combatant  branches  and  the 
Staff  of  an  army  with  that  between  schoolmasters  and  their 
pupils  of  which  I  spoke  just  now.  The  masters  initiate 
and  carry  on  a  process  of  limiting  natural  freedom.  The 
resulting  hostility,  or  armed  neutrality,  is,  in  its  way,  a 
good  thing.  It  inspires  action  and  emulation.  When  a 
thing  is  inevitable,  if  it  can  be  turned  to  good  so  much  the 
better.  Obstacles  balking  fools  the  wise  make  pivots  of 
victory.  Since  the  Staff  of  the  army  is  the  brain  of  the 
army  it  is  obviously  different  in  its  functions  from  those 
who  do  the  active  work.  When  an  officer  with  red  tabs 
on  his  uniform  and  a  red  band  round  his  cap  comes  to  the 
trenches,  looks  at  them,  makes  a  few  casual  remarks, 
goes  away  again,  and  you  are  presently  told  that  every- 
thing done  has  been  done  wrong  and  has  to  be  done  again, 
there  is,  of  course,  a  kind  of  revolt  against  it.  Sometimes 
you  may  say  bitterly  that  the  Staff  has  not  got  to  do  the 
work.  But  possibly  you  may  recognize  as  a  compensation 
that  it  could  not  do  your  work  if  it  tried.  I  am  sure  that  it 
could  not  after  it  has  been  trained  on  its  own  special  lines 
for  any  length  of  time.  But  you  must  remember  that  this 
partial  incapacity  is  a  sacrifice  to  efficiency  in  the  organ- 
ization to  which  you  all  belong.  The  Staff  make  their 


TRAINING  AND  ORGANIZATION  245 

sacrifices  in  the  same  way  as  the  combatant  branches  make 
theirs.  They  give  up  a  portion  of  themselves  for  the  bene- 
fit of  the  army.  It  is  a  curious  fact,  with  which  many  of  you 
are  probably  not  acquainted,  that,  though  most  of  the  cells 
of  the  body  are  capable  of  reproducing  themselves  and  do 
constantly  reproduce  themselves  throughout  the  life  of 
man,  the  nerve  cells  are  incapable  of  reproduction.  The 
nerve  cells  and  the  whole  brain  composed  of  them,  with 
which  you  begin  your  life,  you  carry  to  the  grave.  This 
may  be  a  heavy  burden  to  some  unlucky  people,  but  if  you 
think  a  minute  it  emphasizes  amazingly  the  necessity  of 
training  the  nerve  cells  of  the  brain  and  whole  nervous 
system  at  an  early  stage  of  their  career,  and  it  shows  us 
why  we  should  endeavour  to  keep  them  elastic.  The  man 
who  keeps  his  mind  fresh  through  life  is  the  man  who  is 
interested  in  everything  and  is  never  stale  or  satisfied,  for 
he  gives  his  nerve  cells  all  kinds  of  work  and  keeps  them  in 
training.  But  if  he  belongs  to  a  highly  specialized  branch, 
such  as  the  Staff  of  an  army,  he  must  necessarily  sacrifice, 
or  partially  atrophy,  much  of  his  capabilities  and  capacities 
for  the  definite  ends  of  the  body  to  which  he  belongs.  If  the 
chief  nerve  cells  and  the  main  nervous  system  of  the  army 
do  this  they  must  be  very  different  from  those  of  you  who 
are  to  be,  if  I  may  put  it  so,  the  nerve  endings  in  the  mus- 
cular portions  of  the  army  organization.  Those  on  the 
Staff  have  much  more  to  take  into  account,  and  above  all 
things  must  avoid  being  affected  by  the  corporate  enthu- 
siasm which  enables  a  battalion  or  a  company  or  even 
a  platoon  to  be  carried  away  by  the  passion  of  the  fight. 
If,  therefore,  the  Staff  keeps  itself  aloof  from  these  passions, 
as  indeed  it  must,  it  often  seems  cold  and  alien  from  those 
who  do  the  actual  work.  For  efficiency  all  must  sacrifice 
something  of  their  individuality.  All  their  nervous  power 


246          WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

must  be  turned  towards  the  common  ends  for  which  they 
have  been  trained.  Our  individuality  depends  largely  on 
the  points  in  which  we  are,  or  believe  ourselves  to  be, 
different  from  other  men.  But  when  working  together  for 
common  objects  we  cannot  insist  upon  our  differences. 
If  we  do  insist  upon  them  nothing  can  be  done.  I  have  seen 
this  happen  dozens  of  times  in  badly  organized  committees. 
Agreement  on  common  ends,  touched  with  mass  emotion  and 
mass  feeling,  is  the  true  basis  of  organization. 

I  do  not  suppose  that  many  of  you  have  made  a  study 
of  what  is  called  the  psychology  of  crowds.  Many  years 
ago  I  began  to  work  on  the  subject,  and  to  my  great 
annoyance  a  very  able  Frenchman,  Gustave  Le  Bon, 
published  a  book  called  Psychologie  des  Foules.  My  only 
consolation  is  that  he  probably  did  it  better  than  I  should 
have  done.  It  is  brilliant  and  suggestive.  If  you  pursue 
studies  of  this  order  you  will  find  that  there  is  such  a  thing 
as  natural  partial  organization  of  individuals  without 
preparation  and  without  a  real  nervous  system.  When 
in  crowds,  you  have  sometimes  found  yourselves  carried 
away  without  knowing  the  reason.  You  have  perhaps 
shouted  in  a  manner  totally  at  variance  with  your  common 
habits,  you  may  have  been  ready  to  assault  people  or  to 
break  the  law  in  the  most  enthusiastic  way.  I  remember 
many  years  ago,  when  I  was  ill  and  thought  exercise  would 
do  me  good,  going  out  for  a  long  walk  on  one  of  the  days 
of  the  Epsom  Spring  Meeting.  It  will  perhaps  be  hard 
for  me  to  convince  you  that  I  came  out  on  Epsom  Downs 
without  knowing  where  I  was.  When  I  found  out  and 
saw  the  big  crowd  in  the  distance  I  walked  towards  it. 
I  was  gloomy  and  dyspeptic.  I  never  cared  much  for 
racing  ;  I  had  never  attended  a  big  race  meeting  in  my 
life.  But  I  said  to  myself  that  as  I  was  there  I  might 


TRAINING  AND  ORGANIZATION  247 

as  well  see  what  they  were  doing.  Bit  by  bit  I  edged  my 
way  into  the  crowd  and  presently  forgot  I  was  ill,  and 
began  to  take  an  interest  in  things.  I  asked  the  man 
next  to  me  what  race  was  to  be  run  and,  obviously  showing 
great  surprise  at  my  ignorance,  he  answered  that  it  was 
the  Oaks.  And  he  told  me  that  the  name  of  the  favourite 
was  Geheimniss.  Presently  the  race  was  started,  and 
soon  the  crowd  rose  up  with  a  roar  as  the  horses  came 
round  Tattenham  Corner  into  the  straight.  Now  do  not 
forget  that  I  had  not  a  penny  on  the  result,  and  had  never 
seen  a  race  before,  and  did  not  know  the  name  of  a  single 
mare  in  it  until  I  was  told.  Yet  when  they  came  up  the 
straight,  and  the  crowd  began  to  shout,  and  the  whole 
of  the  people  in  the  Grand  Stand  opposite  rose  to  their 
feet,  to  my  utter  amazement  I  found  myself  shouting  at 
the  top  of  my  voice,  "  Geheimniss  wins,  Geheimniss  wins  !  " 
Somebody  near  me,  on  the  other  hand,  having  probably 
put  money  on  another  animal,  shouted,  "  So-and-so  wins, 
So-and-so  wins  !  "  whereupon  I  turned  upon  him  furiously 
and  said,  "No,  damn  you,  Geheimniss  wins ! "  And  she 
did  win.  Then  the  crowd  broke  up  and  I  drifted  out  of 
it  and  went  off  by  myself  wondering  what  had  happened 
to  me.  I  know  now  that  I  had  been  caught  by  the  massed 
enthusiasm  of  the  crowd  and  made  one  of  a  very  peculiar 
racing  organism — an  organism,  by  the  way,  not  of  a  high 
type. 

Here  I  think  I  might  quote  a  short  passage  out  of 
something  I  wrote  many  years  ago  : 

"  A  crowd  is  not  human,  as  we  understand  human 
individuality.  It's  not  bestial,  not  reptilian.  But  it's 
all  three — human,  bestial,  and  reptilian  ....  A  crowd 
is  a  flood  of  life,  a  giant  mass  of  deadly  forces  ;  it  has  no 
very  clear  foresight ;  it  takes  the  present  only ;  it  has  no 


248          WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

conscience.  A  man  in  a  crowd  can  commit  crimes  and 
come  out  without  knowing  he  has  done  so.  It's  a  new 
organism,  a  creature  not  in  the  books.  Drag  one  of  its 
parts  out,  knock  him  down  and  cool  him,  and  see  him 
come  back  slowly  to  humanity  again,  I've  seen  it.  The 
psychology  of  a  crowd  is  the  psychology  of  a  pure  in- 
stinctive. A  madman  may  act  as  a  crowd  acts ;  he's 
gone  down  to  the  raging  level  of  a  mass.  The  hot  average 
of  an  angry  number  is  a  devilish  thing." 

Some  day  those  of  you  who  remain  in  the  army  may 
be  called  upon  to  Jo  the  most  disagreeable  duty  of  a 
soldier,  which  is  to  act  in  civil  disorder.  Then  you  may 
unluckily  learn  the  nature  of  a  savage  crowd.  Instinctively 
you  will  recognize  that  it  is  an  organism,  and  see  that  it 
has  a  strength  of  passion  single  in  aim.  You  will  endeavour 
to  split  it  up,  to  keep  it  moving  ceaselessly  lest  it  should 
get  set  and  act.  We  may  be  thankful  to  know  that  these 
very  qualities  and  passions  directed  and  trained  and 
organized  can  give  us  the  army  which  we  need. 

In  the  crowd  considered  as  a  simple  organism  a  single 
thought  almost  always  dominates.  It  cannot,  as  a  rule, 
be  a  lofty  or  ennobling  thought,  for  without  much  training 
a  mass  of  people  are  rarely  capable  of  being  moved  by 
fine  motives.  Therefore  you  need  not  be  surprised  when 
you  recognize  the  fact  that  an  organized  crowd  in  action 
is  often  a  destructive  organism.  You  may  see  the  same 
in  strikes  where  the  nervous  system  of  a  trades  union 
fails  to  control  a  badly  organized  body  of  men.  Of  course 
in  every  crowd  there  are  the  rudiments  of  a  nervous 
system  :  somebody  springs  to  the  front  and  becomes  a 
ringleader.  If  he  speaks,  and  speaks  successfully,  he 
always  represents  what  the  others  want  and  usually  puts 
it  in  a  few  words.  What  we  are  accustomed  to  call  con- 


TRAINING  AND  ORGANIZATION  249 

temptuously  an  agitator  is  nothing  more  nor  less  than  a 
possible  part  of  the  inchoate  nervous  system  of  a  new 
body.  By  the  time  it  is  properly  organized  we  usually 
cease  to  call  the  leaders  abusive  names,  and  if  they  keep 
a  firm  nervous  control  over  their  numbers  we  are  prepared 
to  do  them  more  or  less  honour. 

I  think  we  may  now  say  that,  when  we  have  specific 
training  for  specific  and  definite  purposes,  we  must  have 
a  union  of  organized  ideas,  a  common  end,  and  a  nervous 
system.  I  dare  say  you  have  often  been  bored  to  tears, 
almost  to  extinction,  by  some  of  the  training  through 
which  you  have  been  put.  This  I  know  to  be  especially 
true  of  the  men  who  are,  or  will  be,  under  your  command, 
when  they  are  going  through  the  long  early  stages  of  their 
drill.  Although  on  general  principles  it  is  not  essential 
to  explain  definitely  to  most  recruits  the  whole  purpose 
of  their  training,  I  think  the  time  comes  when  the  men 
should  be  given  some  of  the  real  reasons  why  they  have  to 
do  things  which  weary  them.  Sometimes  you  will  hear 
a  private  declare  he  wishes  he  had  not  joined  the  army, 
because  he  has  been  "  forming  fours  "  for  twelve  months 
at  a  time.  He  cannot  understand  why  he  and  the  battalion 
to  which  he  belongs  are  not  yet  considered  ready  for 
the  Front.  He  will  add  that  when  he  gets  there  he  does 
not  suppose  he  will  be  kept  "  forming  fours,"  and  he 
cannot  understand  why  he  should  learn  it  anyhow.  He 
does  not  know  that  till  it  bores  him  in  some  measure  it 
has  not  become  instinctive.  And  it  has  to  be  instinctive, 
because  only  so  can  his  nervous  system  learn  to  respond 
rapidly  to  orders.  Perhaps  it  is  in  some  ways  the  same 
with  you.  Possibly  you  wondered  why  you  were  put 
through  so  much  drill  or  why  you  had  less  than  recruits. 
It  was  not  because  you  were  more  intelligent,  but  because 


250          WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

as  the  last  ends  of  the  battalion's  nervous  system  you  had 
to  preserve  more  individuality  than  your  men.      Possibly 
in  certain  cases  you  might  explain  to  them  why  you  are 
drilling  them — why  you  want  so  much  to  get  them  to  act 
together,  to  act  with  rapidity,  to  act  instinctively  or  even 
like  a  reflex.     And  a  reflex  action,  I  may  remind  you,  is 
one  that  has  a  short  path.     It  is  not  pondered  over  by  the 
intellect ;  it  is  done  more  than  instinctively,  it  is  entirely 
a  decentralized  action  for  which  no  reference  need  be 
made  to  the  higher  brain.     Rapid  reflex  action  to  the 
stimulus  of  an  order  are  the  essential  results  of  all  good 
training.     When  there  is  no   time   for   reasoning,  when 
action  is  absolutely  necessary,  nobody  must  stop  to  think. 
But  in  a  properly  trained  and  organized  body  of  men, 
whether  it  be  large  or  small,  the  thinking  has  been  done, 
the  men  have  learnt  to  obey ;  while  the  officers  have  learnt 
not  only  to  obey  but  to  understand  what  is  wanted  almost 
before   the   order   reaches   them.     They   L       adapted   to 
their  new  environment.     You  have,   of  course,   already 
been  instructed  that  when  you  get  into  the  firing  line, 
and  are  in  command  of  a  platoon  or  a  company,  and  the 
order  is  given  to  advance,  it  is  your  place  to  lead.     Prob- 
ably it  is   true  that  the  best  leaders  are  those  who,  on 
such  occasions,  are  out  of  the  trenches  themselves  before 
they  give  the  order.     Now  if  this  is  so,  it  is  what  we  should 
expect  from  the  very  nature  of  the  organism  I  have  been 
trying  to  describe.     As  you  see,  the  platoon  leader  or  the 
company  leader  is  essentially  the  nervous  portion  of  the 
platoon  or  company.     But,  as  you  must  know,  when  a 
nervous  impulse  comes  from  the  brain  it  is  obvious  the 
nerve  is  in   action  before  the  muscles  react.     So  when 
you  get  the  order,  or  the  time  comes  for  you  to  move, 
you  necessarily  do  so  before  your  men.     Where  you  go 


TRAINING  AND  ORGANIZATION  251 

they  will  follow  if  they  have  been  properly  trained  and 
are  in  good  condition.  I  may  suggest  to  you  here  that 
the  phrase  "  shaken  troops  "  means,  in  very  many  cases, 
that  the  nervous  system  of  that  particular  portion  of 
the  organism  has  itself  been  shaken  and  broken  up.  So 
long  as  the  nervous  system  of  the  body  keeps  its  power 
of  reaction  to  a  stimulus,  so  long  will  the  muscles  move. 
If  the  nerve  fibre  which  moves  a  muscle  is  disintegrated 
or  gets  paralysed  the  muscle  will  not  stir.  If  a  nerve 
end  is  wholly  tired  out  the  impulse  is  not  carried  over 
until  it  is  repaired  by  rest.  We  know,  however,  by  physical 
experiments  that,  after  a  muscle  thus  ceases  to  contract, 
it  will  work  again  if  stimulated  directly  by  an  electric 
battery.  From  this  we  see  that  it  was  the  end  of  a  nerve 
which  temporarily  broke  down,  and  that  the  muscle  cells 
still  keep  their  contractility.  You  may  therefore  learn 
from  this  the  high  responsibility  that  rests  on  you  to  keep 
absolutely  fit  in  mind  and  body,  for  the  fitter  you  are 
the  longer  you  will  be  able  to  transmit  energy  and  carry 
out  the  orders  you  receive.  In  most  cases  you  need  not 
doubt  that  if  you  have  men  who  will  not  move  when  you 
order  them,  the  fault  lies  either  with  you  as  a  leader  or 
with  the  training  of  the  men  before  or  since  you  took 
them  over.  But  be  readier  to  blame  yourselves  than 
others.  Of  course  you  will  see,  on  the  theories  I  have 
just  suggested  to  you  (and  remember  I  have  no  time  to 
do  more  than  make  suggestions),  that  much  depends  on 
the  quality  of  the  nerves  and  the  quality  of  the  reacting 
muscles,  on  the  quality  of  the  officers  and  the  quality  of 
the  troops.  It  sometimes  happens  in  war,  as  you  must 
know,  that  the  men  who  will  not  move  for  one  officer  will 
for  another,  and  that  on  desperate  occasions  the  Com- 
manding Officer  himself  may  have  to  come  into  the  firing 


252          WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

line  and  take  the  place  of  the  Company  Officer.  This 
may  remind  you  of  what  I  have  just  said  of  a  muscle 
being  directly  stimulated  by  electricity.  I  can  give  you 
a  curious  example  of  this  which  happened  at  sea  in  a 
merchant  ship.  Organization  in  such  a  vessel  is  always 
rough  and  ready,  but  still  it  is  organization.  In  very 
bad  weather,  when  going  aloft  is  highly  dangerous,  the 
men  sometimes  will  not  move  for  the  second  mate,  whose 
duty  it  is  to  lead  them  when  they  are  ordered  aloft.  In 
this  particular  case  they  refused  to  follow  him.  It  was 
blowing  a  hurricane,  and  it  was  necessary  to  cut  away 
a  topsail  rather  than  stow  it,  because  to  have  started  a 
sheet  would  probably  have  brought  the  topmast  about 
their  ears.  When  they  refused  to  follow  the  second 
mate  the  mate  attempted  to  lead  them.  One  or  two  made 
a  motion  to  follow  him,  and  were  actually  dragged  back 
by  the  others.  Then  the  old  skipper,  a  white-haired  man 
of  over  sixty,  came  down  from  the  poop,  and  without  a 
word  climbed  on  the  rail.  Just  as  he  was  about  to  put 
his  foot  on  the  ratlines  the  men  with  one  accord  rushed 
after  him,  pulled  him  down,  and  went  aloft  themselves. 
You  see  they  succumbed  to  the  greater  stimulus  when  they 
had  failed  to  move  for  the  less. 

Perhaps  I  may  venture  here  to  say  something  to  you 
about  the  men  who  will  be  under  your  command.  They 
will  become  much  to  you  and  you  will  be  much  to  them 
if  you  have  in  you  the  power  of  command,  which  is  the 
nervous  force  of  organization.  There  are  many  ways  of 
doing  things.  With  men  the  means  are  love  and  fear. 
Your  men  should  love  you,  and  they  will  probably  express 
it  by  saying,  "  Oh,  the  officer's  all  right  !  "  You  can, 
of  course,  if  you  have  the  power  in  you,  make  them  fear 
you.  That  is  one  way  of  working,  but  if  you  make  them 


TRAINING  AND  ORGANIZATION  253 

love  you  they  will  fear  you  too.  We  fear  those  most 
we  love  most.  If  any  of  you  who  are  bachelors  doubt 
this,  ask  those  among  you  who  are  married.  Well,  there 
is  something  to  add  to  this.  Many  a  local  success  has 
been  gained  in  war  by  the  rage  of  men  at  the  loss  of  a 
beloved  leader.  But  I  have  never  heard  of  one  gained 
because  a  man  they  feared  and  hated  went  down  in  battle. 
Remembering  that  all  of  you  make  up  an  organization, 
you  will  each  in  your  own  way  reach  out  to  your  men 
and  grapple  them  to  you.  In  chemistry  an  atom  is  said 
to  have  much  valency  or  little  or  none,  and  its  valency 
is  its  power  of  hooking  on  to  other  atoms  and  making 
a  big  organized  molecule.  Might  I  say  to  you,  get  as  much 
valency  as  you  can  ?  You  may  develop  it  by  learning 
to  help,  by  sympathy,  by  understanding.  There  are 
chemical  compounds  called  paraffins,  and  the  word 
etymologically  means  "  little  affinity."  Paraffins  are 
compounds  of  satisfied  valency  :  perhaps  we  might  say 
they  are  fatly  self-satisfied.  They  cannot  hook  on  to 
anything.  Do  not  be  paraffin  officers  :  take  your  men 
into  your  grasp.  You  will  get  some  of  their  best  qualities, 
and  you  will  give  them  some  of  yours.  In  a  very  deep 
way  you  will  become  like  them  and  they  like  you. 

I  do  not  know  whether  you  have  yet  noticed,  perhaps 
as  young  men  still  being  trained  you  have  had  little  or 
no  chance  to  notice  it,  that  under  common  impulses  men 
do  get  strangely  alike.  Probably  there  are  officers  here 
who  have  seen  this.  A  single  dominating  emotion  so 
prints  itself  on  the  faces  of  an  organized  body  that  the 
common  differences  almost  disappear.  You  do  not 
notice  the  individual  members  of  a  crowd  if  they  are 
moved  by  any  vast  passion.  What  you  notice  is  the 
passion  itself,  and  it  is  often  quite  appalling.  But  such 


254          WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

a  passion,  when  it  has  been  properly  excited  by  the 
actions  and  words  of  a  leader,  will  occasionally  come 
back  as  a  renewed  stimulus  with  a  tremendous  force  on 
that  very  leader  himself.  I  do  not  know  whether  you 
remember  a  resounding  phrase  about  a  great  traditional 
poet  and  the  people  for  whom  he  sang.  It  was  :  "  What 
they  sent  up  to  him  in  vapour  he  returned  to  them  in 
flood." 

May  I  then  say  once  more  that  it  is  your  work  so  to 
train  your  men  and  yourselves  that,  when  the  hour  of 
stress  comes,  you  will  not  only  help  them  and  lead  them, 
but  will  also  receive  from  them  the  unsuspected  but 
mighty  stimulation  which  comes  from  the  undivided 
strength  of  a  real  organism  devoted  to  one  high  end, 
the  well-being  and  honour  and  glory  of  our  country  ? 


CHAPTER    X  I 

THE  PHARMAKOS  AND  MEDICINE  l 

YEARS  ago  I  began  to  wonder  why  the  Greek 
scapegoat  or  outcast  of  the  festival  of  the 
Thargelia  was  called  a  Pharmakos.  I  could  not  under- 
stand what  connection  there  could  be  between  the  Greek 
words  <poip(A<x,x,ov  and  (pappuxtvu  and  the  scapegoat  that 
many  have  called  the  Human  Medicine.  However,  the 
matter  passed  out  of  my  mind  till  I  got  a  copy  of  the 
second  edition  of  The  Rise  of  the  Greek  Epic,  and  there 
Professor  Murray's  remarks  in  Appendix  A  brought  the 
matter  back  to  me.  Professor  Murray  seemed  to  believe 
it  was  probably  a  foreign  word,  and,  noting  the  long  a 
in  the  Ionic,  suggested  that  in  Attic  the  a  was  short 
from  analogy  with  <papjo/a#oi'.  This  seemed  to  imply 
that  he  regarded  Pharmakos,  the  scapegoat,  as  differently 
derived  from  <pap^a*ov,  the  drug.  Nevertheless,  on  page  34 
of  the  Greek  Epic  he  speaks  of  the  Pharmakos  as  Human 
Medicine,  which  to  my  mind  is  a  very  late  interpretation 
of  the  word.  It  certainly  is  a  difficult  problem  to  con- 
nect Pharmakos  with  a  word  for  a  drug  or  a  man  who 
used  a  drug,  a  pharmacist  or  physician.  But  following 
the  clue  which  suggested  a  foreign  origin,  I  sought  for 
some  other  word  in  the  same  area  which  might  suggest 
where  it  came  from.  I  now  believe  that  the  original  word 

1  The  Pharmakos,  "  Folk-Lore,"  vol.  xxvii.  2,  pp.  218-224.     Vide  Preface. 

255 


256          WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

and  the  two  original  roots  which  make  it  up  came  from 
the  Turkic  family  of  speech.  For  there  is  to  be  found 
in  the  Turkic  tongues  in  various  forms  what  looks  like  the 
very  word  itself.  In  Turkish  itself  it  is  spelt  vourmak, 
which  means  "  to  beat."  In  this  word  vour  is  the  root, 
which  means  "  beat,"  and  mak  or,  rather,  mag,  is  the 
original  root,  both  in  the  Turkic  and  Aryan  families, 
which  means  "  make."  That  mak  is  common  to  these 
two  groups  seems  tolerably  certain,  though  how  it  came 
to  be  in  both  nobody  knows.  We  certainly  cannot  con- 
nect the  Turkic  with  the  Aryan  group,  and  yet  the  root 
mak  is  very  widely  spread.  Thus  vourmak  means  literally 
"  to  make  blows  "  or  "to  whip."  It  is  odd  that  it  is 
seldom  employed  in  any  Turkic  tongue  to  mean  beating 
with  a  stick  or  whip.  In  that  case  the  root  dyon  is  more 
commonly  used.  When  we  remember  that  in  the  Greek 
Ritual  the  Pharmakos  was  beaten  with  agnus  castus, 
with  squills  and  other  flowers,  that  must  have  some  signi- 
ficance. We  may  note  that  vourmak,  "  to  beat,"  may 
just  as  often  have  the  termination  mek  when  the  Turkish 
laws  of  euphony  demand  it.  One  of  the  Turkish  sub- 
stantival gerunds  of  vourmak  is  vourour  or  vfirfir,  which 
seems  to  be,  curiously  enough,  the  exact  philological 
equivalent  of  the  Latin  verber,  a  thong  or  whip,  which  is 
apparently  an  oddly  reduplicated  form.  From  this  it 
seems  the  real  meaning  of  Pharmakos  is  just  a  beaten  or 
whipped  person,  and  at  last,  by  a  later  process  of  semantics, 
one  who  has  been  driven  out  with  blows.  Whether  one 
is  justified  in  bringing  in  Latin  in  this  case  is  a  matter 
of  question,  but  it  is  certainly  interesting  to  note  that 
the  reduplicated  root  in  verber  and  verberare  and  in  verbero 
(one  who  deserves  a  flogging)  has  in  some  ways  a  look  as 
if  it  did  not  belong  to  the  Latin  tongue,  but  was  an  importa- 


PHARMAKOS  AND  MEDICINE  257 

tion  as  in  the  Greek.  It  is  certainly  suggestive  of  the 
root  vour  or  phar.  I  note  in  the  old  Etymologicon  of  Voss 
he  says  as  regards  verbera,  "  sed  cum  Salmasio  dicamus 
verber  esse  ab  seolico  jSep-ryp  pro  Sgpryp."  Of  course, 
no  stress  can  be  laid  on  this  or  on  Voss.  An  interesting 
analogy  is  also  to  be  found  in  the  Greek  (jttuariyiott,  a 
scoundrel. 

According  to  this  view,  <pup[Act%£v&>,  "  I  give  drugs  or 
poisons,"  is,  naturally,  from  the  same  roots.  Its  very 
existence  implies  an  early  medicine  man,  a  Shaman, 
some  one  equivalent  to  those  found  with  all  their 
ritual  among  the  Africans  and  Central  Asians.  Thus 
<papjO/axug/v  means,  as  it  would  with  early  races,  "  to 
drive  out  evil  spirits  with  a  whip,  or  with  blows."  Such 
a  connotation  is,  on  my  theory,  earlier  than  "  to  give 
poisons,"  but  one  knows  that  the  ritual  of  the  savage 
cure  largely  consists  in  driving  out  the  spirit  of  disease 
or  witchcraft  by  noisy  incantations  or  by  actual  physical 
ill-usage  of  the  patient.  If  I  am  right,  it  is  curious  to 
consider  that  our  word  "  pharmacist  "  has  for  its  early 
meaning  exactly  that  of  the  ancient  medicine  man  or 
exorcist. 

There  is  another  interesting  point  connected  with 
Pharmakos  which  I  have  not  seen  mentioned.  All  over 
the  East  the  word  farma^ion  is  used  with  the  meaning 
of  an  outlaw,  and  quite  commonly  with  that  of  a  cunning 
blood-drinking  enemy  of  religion,  a  man  who  is  a  satanist 
or  devil-worshipper.  Of  course,  by  a  sort  of  meiosis  it 
seems  sometimes  to  mean  a  mere  scoundrel,  just  as  by  a 
kind  of  hypokorisma  the  equally  interesting  word  epikouros 
is  used  in  Northern  Africa,  where  this  verbal  descendant 
of  the  name  of  the  great  philosopher  has  come  to  mean 
an  enemy  of  Islam,  a  Christian,  and  an  atheist  or  a 
17 


258          WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

scoundrel.  This  is  somewhat  on  a  par  with  the  use  of  the 
word  "  Atheists  "  for  the  Christians  at  the  time  of  Julian 
the  Apostate.  There  does  not  seem  to  me  any  doubt 
whatever  that  farmagion  is  actually  the  same  word  as 
Pharmakos.  It  is  used  in  Turkey  and  Asia  Minor,  and 
as  far  east  as  Afghanistan.  It  may  be  that  the  ancestors 
of  the  Greeks  borrowed  it  originally  from  some  Turkic 
race,  and  returned  it  again  to  the  Mahommedans  with  a 
fuller  connotation. 

Oddly  enough,  the  word  farmagion  has,  since  its  re- 
adoption  by  Eastern  races,  taken  on  a  new  meaning.  It 
now  often  means  "  a  freemason,"  one  who  is  looked  upon 
by  the  orthodox  as  an  outcast  and  a  scoundrel,  a  sufi  and 
one  highly  irreligious.  Not  being  a  freemason  myself,  I 
know  nothing  of  its  ritual,  but,  so  far  as  I  can  learn, 
members  of  this  society,  or  those  who  are  really  instructed 
in  its  ritual  and  doctrines,  regard  their  common  name 
as  one  very  uncertain  in  its  etymology.  Its  present  or 
common  meaning  is  undoubtedly  false  philology.  Our 
word  freemason  is,  of  course,  a  translation  from  the  French 
franc-mason,  but  to  my  mind  "  franc  "  is  nothing  but  a 
metathesized  form  of  the  vour  of  vourmak  and  the  phar 
of  Pharmakos  with  an  added  euphonic  nasal.  Thus,  it  is 
only  by  a  later  verbal  accident  that  the  "  ma?on  "  was 
turned  into  "  mason,"  and  connected  with  masonry  and 
building.  Probably,  then,  it  is  actually  the  same  root  as 
the  mak  of  vourmak  or  farmafion.  The  early  societies  and 
secret  orders  of  the  East  (the  East,  as  might  be  expected, 
being  full  of  secret  orders)  have  linked  themselves  on  to 
masonry  as  the  last  surviving  order  which  used  their  secret 
marks.  Probably,  to  begin  with,  these  marks  had  no  rela- 
tion to  building.  It  seems  then  that  etymologically  the 
freemasons  are  no  more  than  a  band  of  "  pharmakoi." 


PHARMAKOS  AND  MEDICINE  259 

To  go  back  to  the  actual  Pharmakos,  one  may  note  that 
Professor  Murray  is  strongly  of  opinion  that  he  was  never 
killed,  but  only  beaten.  This  is  certainly  borne  out  by 
my  suggested  etymology,  although,  of  course,  the  very 
word  Pharmakos  may  only  have  come  into  use  when  the 
ritual  had  been  modified  and  humanized.  It  is  interesting 
to  note  that  there  are  two  small  islands  off  the  coast  of 
Attica,  not  far  from  Salamis  and  in  the  Bay  of  Eleusis, 
which  were  known  in  classical  times  as  Pharmacussse. 
On  one  of  them  used  to  be  shown  the  Temple  of  Circe. 
There  is  another  island  on  the  coast  of  Asia  Minor  called 
Pharmacusa,  where,  according  to  Plutarch,  Caesar  was 
taken  prisoner  by  pirates  when  he  was  a  young  man.  I 
cannot  help  thinking  that  in  both  cases  these  islands  might 
practically  be  translated  into  English  as  Outcast  Island 
or  Islands.  That  is  to  say,  they  were  originally  refuges 
for  wandering  scoundrels,  pirates,  and  the  like,  those  who 
harried  the  settled  mainland,  and  were  looked  upon  as  the 
Britons  looked  upon  the  Danes,  and  as  the  mainlanders 
looked  upon  some  of  the  islanders  at  the  time  of  the 
Migrations  of  which  Professor  Murray  gives  such  a  fine 
imaginative  picture.  There  also  is  another  island  in  the 
Bay  of  lassus  which  is,  I  believe,  still  called  Farmako. 
It  is  possible,  of  course,  that  such  a  name  sprang  from 
the  fact  that  these  islands  were  inhabited  by  survivors 
of  the  primitive  tribes  who  were  always  apt  to  be  looked 
upon  as  magicians. 

Naturally  enough,  during  the  course  of  time  there 
have  been  many  attempts  to  discover  the  root  meaning 
of  Pharmakos,  and  I  cannot  help  thinking  that  some 
of  the  later  attempts  are  little  better  than  those  of  the 
scholiast  and  grammarians.  For  instance,  Eustathius 
derives  pharmakon  from  (p'spetv  u,%Qo<;  when  used  in  a 


260          WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

bad  sense,  and  from  <pgp£/v  oixog  when  used  in  a  good 
one.  One  does  not  always,  even  nowadays,  get  much 
help  from  those  who  ought  to  know.  When  my  theory 
was  submitted  to  one  well-known  Orientalist  he  said 
that  the  older  or  classical  form  of  vourmak  was  ourmak. 
He  was,  of  course,  wrong.  He  was  an  authority  on  the 
Semitic  languages,  but  evidently  knew  little  of  Turkish. 
It  is  impossible  to  speak  of  it  as  an  old  form  when  all 
existing  Turkish  documents,  being  in  the  Arabian  char- 
acter, must  necessarily  be  subsequent  to  the  eighth 
century,  when  the  Turks  of  the  Khanates  were  endowed 
simultaneously  with  Islam  and  the  Persi-Arabic  alphabet. 
Nor  do  I  understand  how  he  could  have  thought  ourmak 
could  have  been  degraded  into  the  popular  form  vourmak. 
According  to  all  philologic  knowledge,  any  degradation 
would  have  been  in  the  opposite  direction.  It  may  be 
noted  that  as  there  is  no  Arabic  character  to  represent  the 
v  sound  the  Turks  use  the  wau  for  this  purpose.  There 
are,  in  fact,  hundreds  of  words  in  Turkish  beginning  with 
a  v  sound  and  thousands  in  which  the  v  is  incorporated. 
They  are  all  represented  by  the  Arabic  wau. 

In  this  paper  I  have  not  troubled  to  speak  about  the 
actual  meaning  of  the  Pharmakos  ceremony.  Professor 
Murray  seems  wedded  to  the  belief  that  it  was  in  every 
case  a  mimema.  On  the  other  hand,  Sir  James  Frazer 
is  equally  certain  that  even  in  civilized  Greece  the  Thar- 
gelian  rites  took  darker  forms  than  the  mere  expulsion  of 
this  quasi-religious  outcast  when  he  was  beaten  with  agnus 
castus  or  squills  and  expelled  from  the  city.  Certainly, 
the  derivation  which  I  offer  seems  on  the  surface  to  support 
Professor  Murray's  contention.  But  the  general  body  of 
anthropological  lore  on  this  subject  points  steadily  to 
darker  customs  which  may  have  been  resurrected  in 


PHARMAKOS  AND  MEDICINE  261 

classical  Greece  during  the  times  of  abnormal  wrath  on 
the  part  of  the  gods  or  in  times  of  scarcity,  if  the  Phar- 
makos  represented,  as  he  often  must  have  done,  the  spirit 
of  winter. 

It  would,  of  course,  be  interesting  to  get  some  early 
references  to  the  use  of  farmapion,  but  it  is  very  difficult 
to  trace  any  Oriental  expression  before  mediaeval  times. 
One  has  to  remember  that  using  the  pen  was,  in  its  way,  a 
solemn  rite.  Up  to  the  tenth  century  every  sheet  of 
writing  was  headed  among  the  Mahommedans,  "  In  the 
Name  of  Allah,  the  Compassionate  and  Most  Merciful  "  ; 
and  is  still  in  all  literary  work.  An  Orientalist  friend  of 
mine  to  whom  I  have  referred  asks,  "  How,  with  such 
a  headline,  would  a  pious  scribe  dare  to  refer  to  a  blood- 
drinking  satanic  farmafion  ?  Such  a  combination  might 
have  made  some  dreadful  formula  capable  of  shooting 
the  writer  into  the  infinities  of  the  wth  dimension  of  space." 
Such  an  attitude  of  mind  is  especially  characteristic  of 
the  Oriental.  Although  magic  was  utterly  condemned  by 
Mahomet,  it  was  believed  in  none  the  less  because  he 
condemned  it  as  a  practice,  and  it  is  still  believed  in. 
My  friend  tells  me  that  the  word  has  been  used  for  a  long 
.time  in  the  traditional  comments  on  a  portion  of  the  ritual 
of  a  secret  society  into  which  he  was  initiated  in  an  obscure 
town  on  the  Tigris.  The  actual  early  papyrus  was  totally 
indecipherable  and  belonged  to  no  known  language. 
Indeed,  those  who  held  these  documents,  which  had 
probably  been  transcribed  many  times  by  men  who  did  not 
understand  the  script,  were  of  the  romantic  opinion  that 
the  original  was  to  be  referred  to  the  era  of  Khamurabi, 
although  the  comments  were  probably  not  older  than 
the  eighth  century  A.D.  Of  course,  such  a  statement  as 
this  is  not  evidence  without  further  support.  And  yet,  if 


262          WARFARE  IN  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

the  derivation  of  Pharmakos  is  what  I  have  suggested,  the 
use  of  the  word  certainly  goes  back  beyond  all  historic 
times.  Assuredly  farmafion  must  be  a  very  ancient  word, 
and  the  horror  of  the  orthodox  Islamite  for  it  is  natural 
enough.  We  may  compare  the  Catholic  Church  and 
its  views  of  Freemasonry.  There  were  political  reasons 
for  this,  but  the  Church  has  a  deep-seated  jealousy  and 
dislike  and  even  fear  of  secret  societies. 

While  considering  this  subject  I  have  come  across  some 
who  actually  declared  that  we  might  start  the  history  of 
the  word  from  Odyssey  ix.  393.  That  is  certainly  of  to-day 
compared  with  its  real  history,  for  even  Hipponax  of  the 
sixth  century  B.C.  had  to  explain  it.  And  when  this 
passage  in  the  Odyssey  uses  (pappoiffffetv  in  the  sense  of  to 
"  temper,"  how  is  it  possible  for  us  to  look  on  mere  temper- 
ing as  a  primitive  meaning  when  we  know  what  we  do  of 
the  whole  body  of  Wayland  Smith  legends  ?  A  smith  was 
always  a  magician  in  the  old  times.  Of  course,  the 
scholiast  interprets  the  word  in  this  passage  as  "harden- 
ing." As  a  matter  of  fact,  it  was  probably  "  curing." 
What  a  magic  sorcerer  or  smith  did  was  to  cure  the  iron 
of  its  native  softness  and  bewitch  it,  almost  certainly 
with  incantations  and  ritual,  as  he  plunged  it  into  the 
tempering  medium.  We  might  even  say  that  he  drove 
out  the  devil  of  softness.  Wherever  there  is  an  element 
of  magic  in  a  word  one  expects  that  to  be  primary.  The 
expression  (pappciffasiv  -/oCwov,  "  to  temper  or  strengthen 
brass,"  cannot  be  primary.  One  needs  some  imagination 
to  deal  with  words  like  this.  One  of  the  weaknesses  of 
the  common  dictionary  is  its  habit  of  putting  the  usually 
accepted  meaning  first  and  the  original  meaning  after- 
wards. So,  when  one  looks  at  Liddell  and  Scott  one  sees 
means,  to  begin  with,  "  to  medicate,"  and 


PHARMAKOS  AND  MEDICINE  263 

secondly,  "to  enchant  or  bewitch  by  the  use  of  potions." 
The  word  certainly  goes  back  to  the  ages  of  magic  ritual, 
and  back  again  to  the  very  expulsion  of  Jonahs,  people 
who  had  no  luck  and  brought  ill  luck,  probably  before 
magic  itself  was  practised.  It  is  a  natural  animal  instinct 
to  turn  out  those  who  seem  to  bring  ill  fortune,  even 
if  there  is  no  piacular  element  in  such  an  expulsion. 
Animals  often  expel  some  of  their  kind.  We  may  compare 
rooks  and  elephants  and  even  cattle,  who  kill  a  wounded 
member  of  the  herd  when  his  loud  lowing  might  possibly 
bring  them  into  danger. 

Of  course,  it  is  exceedingly  hard  to  say,  when  we  con- 
sider what  a  linguistic  whirlpool  Asia  Minor  has  always 
been,  what  was  the  actual  origin  of  this  particular  word. 
It  might  not  originally  be  Turkic.  There  is  a  strange 
tendency  among  certain  people  to  attribute  everything 
unknown  to  the  Hittites,  but,  as  no  one  seems  to  know 
what  Hittite  is,  that  is  very  little  use  to  the  investigator. 
Vourmak  may  not,  of  course,  be  Turkic  at  all,  although  it  is 
a  living  word  in  the  living  Turkish  language  at  the  present 
time. 


APPENDIX   A 

THE  INFECTION  THEORY  OF  CANCER 

IT  was  obviously  impossible  to  discuss  in  the  text 
all  the  theories  of  cancer  in  detail,  but  as  I  under- 
stand that  some  think  the  paper  less  than  just  to  the  case 
presented  by  those  who  support  the  infection  theory, 
something  more  may  be  said  of  it.  It  was,  perhaps,  too 
much  to  infer  without  a  more  special  examination  that 
the  parasitic  hypothesis  of  malignancy  is  only  explaining 
one  mystery  by  another.  The  real  objection  to  this 
hypothesis  is  that  even  if  it  were  found  to  be  a  fact  that 
an  infection  precedes  all  malignant  growth,  it  would  remain 
a  mere  observation  and  not  an  explanation.  What  we 
want  to  know  is  why  invasive  cell-proliferation  takes  place, 
and  whether  excessive  cell-growth  is  peculiar  to  such 
diseases,  or  can  be  found  in  others.  Any  bacteriological 
explanation  of  malignancy  must  classify  the  phenomena 
among  those  which  are  recognized  as  being  symptomatic 
of  infection.  So  far  this  has  not  been  done,  and  a  pro- 
visional assumption  that  the  imagined  infective  agent 
is  so  different  from  all  others  as  to  be  able  to  produce  the 
phenomena  in  question  exhibits  many  of  the  marks  of 
vitalism,  i.e.  it  invests  the  agent  with  the  unexplained 
power  of  producing  what  we  desire  to  explain.  Logically 
an  unknown  entity  capable  of  causing  the  effects  in 

question  must  not  be  propounded  as  a  cause  if  any  evidence 

265 


266  APPENDIX  A 

can  be  brought  to  show  that  known  causes  can  produce 
them.  If  so  they  can  be  classed.  If  they  are  unique 
phenomena  in  infection  they  obviously  cannot  be  classed. 
But  as  overgrowth  is  not  a  unique  phenomenon  among 
developmental  diseases,  and  as  we  know  that  it  can  be 
caused,  or  inhibited,  by  chemical  cell-products,  we  are 
entitled  to  declare  that  infection,  if  a  cause,  is  a  secondary 
one,  and  that  the  real  cause  lies  among  the  phenomena  of 
growth  as  much  as  acromegaly  and  other  disorders  due 
to  unregulated  stimulation  of  organic  tissues. 

It  is  impossible  to  argue  clearly  upon  so  complex  a 
subject  unless  the  nature  of  explanation  is  really  under- 
stood. We  need  but  ask  any  one  to  "  explain  "  explana- 
tion to  find  how  few  have  clear  ideas  on  the  subject. 
According  to  the  logicians  a  partial  comparison  is  not 
explanation.  The  phenomena  of  one  science  are  only  to 
be  regarded  as  explained  when  they  can  be  classed  among 
the  observed  sequences,  or  so-called  laws,  of  a  more 
inclusive  science.  Therefore  the  pathological  phenomena 
of  malignancy  must  be  capable  of  classification  with  regard 
to  physiological  phenomena  as  we  must  regard  patho- 
logical facts  as  deviations  from  the  average  or  normal 
tissue.  In  the  paper  I  endeavoured  to  range  the  facts 
under  physiological  and  biological  laws,  since  biology 
includes  physiology  and  pathology.  However  unsuc- 
cessful the  attempt  may  have  been,  it  is  obvious  that  it 
was  not  made  without  reason  or  without  results,  whereas 
the  attempt  to  range  them  under  the  observed  sequences 
of  bacteriology  fails  in  vital  particulars,  and  leaves  us 
just  where  we  were,  that  is,  in  presence  of  a  possible 
infective  agent  which  is  hypothetically  given  the  qualities 
that  produce  the  effects  with  none  of  the  known  signs  of 
infectivity.  For  until  a  malignant  growth  becomes  really 


APPENDIX  A  267 

infected  it  is,  so  far  as  its  cells  are  concerned,  obviously 
in  riotous  health,  and  although  symbiotic  alliance  occurs  in 
lower  organisms  such  as  Convoluta  roscoffenis  the  sym- 
biosis is  not  intracellular,  as  the  infective,  microbic,  or 
protozoal  theory  of  cancer  demands. 

Moreover,  even  if  a  special  infection  hypothesis  were 
proved  to  be  correct,  we  should  still  have  to  seek  the  cause 
of  the  tissues  acting  as  they  did  when  affected  by,  or  in 
symbiosis  with,  the  pathogenic  agent.  Till  that  is  under- 
stood we  are  still  in  the  dark,  and  the  particular  organism 
which  causes  disaster  remains  no  more  than  a  secondary 
or  exciting  cause.  It  is,  therefore,  strictly  logical  to 
range  all  infection  causes  as  irritative,  or  irritative  and 
weakening,  agents,  whether  they  be  one  or  many.  Lambert 
Lack  teaches  that  periodontitis  is  a  common  cause  of 
tongue  cancer,  by  which  he  means  that  its  toxic  products 
acting  in  combination  with  other  irritation  and  syphilis 
in  some  way  urge  the  epithelium  into  revolt.  Such  a 
view  is  logically  sound.  It  is  stated  by  Peyton  Rous 
that  fowl  sarcoma  can  be  reproduced  by  the  injection  of 
a  filtered  extract  of  the  original  malignant  growth.  It 
is  therefore  inferred  by  some  authorities  that  the  repro- 
duced disease  is  due  to  a  filter-passing  organism.  So  long, 
however,  as  such  a  filter-passer  cannot  be  cultivated,  or 
shown  to  exist  by  other  methods,  it  is  only  legitimate  to 
infer  that  such  a  phenomenon  must  be  ranged  among 
those  caused  by  irritative  agents  or  toxins  pulling  the 
trigger  of  an  unstable  tissue.  Moreover,  even  if  the  sus- 
pected filter-passer  is  proved  to  exist,  the  only  logical 
inference  to  be  drawn  is  that  an  infective  organism  can 
excite  sarcomatous  overgrowth  in  the  fowl's  tissue  just 
as  other  irritative  agents  can  produce  carcinoma.  The 
evidence  takes  us  no  further  than  irritation.  Even  if  it 


268  APPENDIX  A 

were  proved  that  a  sterilized  injection  of  this  sarcomatous 
growth  failed  to  reproduce  the  original  disease,  it  would 
still  be  far  from  proved  that  more  than  irritation  was 
needed  to  cause  it.  It  is,  indeed,  quite  probable  that  the 
toxins  of  the  injection,  if  not  broken  up  by  the  process 
of  sterilization,  might  still  produce  the  sarcoma  by  abnormal 
stimulation  of  the  connective  tissues,  a  view  in  accordance 
with  those  suggested  in  the  paper.  If  malignancy  were 
caused  by  the  suggested  agents  we  should  expect  like 
results  to  be  found  in  more  cases  than  this.  I  suggest 
that  such  experiments  in  aged  fowls  might  produce 
carcinoma,  not  sarcoma. 

Certain  results  obtained  by  Bashford  with  regard  to 
the  immunization  of  mice  to  mouse-cancer  by  the  injection 
of  mouse  skin,  need  further  elucidation.  I  am  not  sure 
whether  pure  epithelial  products  were  injected,  or  whether 
connective  tissue  was  used  with  it.  According  to  the 
developmental  theory  it  may  be  suggested  that  if  epithelium 
was  used  alone,  mouse-cancer  might  more  properly  be  called 
a  sarcoma.  But  in  any  case  it  remains  very  suggestive 
that  animal  tissues,  whose  action  must  be  in  the  nature  of 
the  products  of  the  endocrine  organs,  do  produce  inhibitory 
effects.  It  is,  perhaps,  the  more  surprising  that  the  work 
of  Shattock,  Seligmann,  and  Dudgeon,  when  they  attempted 
to  produce  chondromatous  growths  by  grafting  foetal 
bones,  did  not  lead  them  in  the  direction  of  the  develop- 
mental view  rather  than  in  that  of  parasitism  or  infection. 
Their  statements  as  to  restraining  bodies,  or  "  corpora 
cohibentia  "  are  strictly  parallel  with  the  doctrine  of  the 
endocrines  which  obviously  inhibit  as  well  as  stimulate. 
They  state  that  "  the  cartilage  of  the  body  (like  each  of 
the  other  tissues)  tends,  we  may  assume,  per  se,  to  grow 
indefinitely  and  without  limitation.  But  against  this 


APPENDIX  A  269 

inherent  endeavour,  each  of  the  other  tissues,  other  than 
the  cartilage,  furnishes  a  restraining  substance,  and  co- 
ordinates its  growth  with  the  rest."  If  this  is  true,  and 
few  will  nowadays  be  found  to  doubt  that  it  represents, 
at  any  rate  partially,  the  actual  machinery  through  which 
ordered  growth  is  obtained,  it  follows  inevitably  that  the 
want  of  a  particular  restraining  body  should  result  in  the 
disorderly  growth  of  some  tissue  specially  apt  to  pro- 
liferate. Such  are  epithelium  and  connective  tissue,  the 
agents  of  malignancy,  and  in  view  of  the  whole  of  the 
phenomena  of  malignant  disaster  and  repair  it  is  perfectly 
legitimate  to  infer  that  these  two  tissues  are  those  which 
react  most  powerfully  upon  each  other. 

Other  experiments  by  Shattock  and  Dudgeon  are  of 
great  interest  and  value,  and  at  first  sight  may  seem  to 
support  the  parasitic  theory.  Mice  fed  with  mouse-cancer 
appear  to  have  developed,  (i)  a  round-celled  sarcoma,  (z) 
an  invasive  epithelioma  of  the  mediastinal  glands,  (3)  an 
invasive  endothelioma.  Such  results  are,  however,  by 
no  means  convincing.  Abnormal  results  from  highly 
abnormal  foods  are  what  might  be  expected,  on  the  general 
theory  of  physiological  balance.  Salmon  and  trout  fry 
fed  upon  pig's  liver  develop  a  thyroidal  overgrowth  which 
later  may  become  malignant,  and  the  ingestion  of  foods, 
carrying  stimulating  or  inhibiting  products  or  both,  should 
on  the  developmental  view  have  abnormal  results.  It 
has  been  said  that  excessive  thyroidal  medication  is  in 
some  cases  followed  by  cancer.  Moreover,  the  statement 
by  the  two  workers  above  mentioned  really  supports  the 
developmental  view.  They  say  "  the  first  striking  thing 
is  that  the  tumours  of  the  three  mice  have  not  the  same 
histological  character,  and  that  none  can  be  viewed  as 
having  resulted  from  the  growth  of  implanted  cells."  If, 


270  APPENDIX  A 

however,  such  tumours  resulted  from  a  definite  parasite, 
we  should  look  for  a  repetition  of  the  original  histological 
structure.  From  the  point  of  view  of  endocrine  action, 
however,  nothing  is  more  likely  than  that  the  subjects  of 
the  experiment  should  break  down  in  different  ways.  One 
mouse  cannot  have  the  exact  resistance  of  another,  nor 
could  we  look  for  the  same  results  in  all  of  them  any  more 
than  we  should  expect  soot  carcinoma  in  every  chimney, 
sweep. 

It  must  be  insisted  on  that  the  developmental  theory 
of  cancer  is  as  definitely  against  cancer  propagation  by 
transplantation  of  cells  from  one  patient  to  another  as  it 
is  against  a  definite  cancer  parasite.  When  Shattock 
endorses  Paget's  view  that  malignancies  in  families  is  not 
due  to  such  causes  it  is  impossible  not  to  agree.  But 
such  an  agreement  by  no  means  reduces  us  to  the  necessity 
of  admitting  infection.  A  family  with  inherited  tissue 
instability,  if  exposed  to  conditions  likely  to  decrease 
health  and  further  impair  tissue  balance,  may  experience 
any  form  of  malignant  growth.  Quite  independent  of 
such  diseases  families  can  be  found  in  which  one  member 
is  hyperthyroidal,  another  an  athyroidal  dwarf,  and  an- 
other myxcedematous.  That  families  subject  to  malignant 
disease  die  of  various  forms  of  it  is  distinctly  against 
parasitism. 

It  is  argued  that  some  of  the  phenomena  of  radium 
and  X-ray  malignancy  imply  a  second  factor,  probably, 
or  at  least  possibly,  a  parasite.  But  in  X-ray  cancer 
nothing  more  appears  to  be  needed  than  the  disturbing 
effects  of  the  rays  themselves.  It  is  difficult  to  suppose 
that  any  organism  is  always  infected  with  an  organism 
ready  to  display  its  activities  on  X-ray  excitation  ;  a 
supposition  which  is  necessary  as  such  rays,  if  sufficiently 


APPENDIX  A  271 

applied,  always  produce  malignancy.  With  regard  to 
radium,  I  understand  that  Lazarus-Barlow  claims  to  have 
produced  by  it  a  "  pre-cancerous  "  growth  in  rats  and 
rabbits.  These  altered  tissues  were  only  slightly  invasive, 
and  when  the  radium  action  was  stopped  they  resumed 
their  normal  character.  It  is  held  by  some  that  this 
proves  the  necessity  of  a  second  factor  which  may  be 
parasitic,  but  the  strictly  logical  view  is  simply  that  the 
organism  recovered,  i.e.  that  the  normal  tissue  inhibitions 
were  restored,  and  that  the  altered  tissues  resumed  their 
ancient  functions.  Since  we  know  that,  even  in  obvious 
cancer,  attempts  of  the  organism  to  cure  it  succeed  for 
long  periods,  it  is  illegitimate  to  infer  that  an  artificially 
produced  morbid  state  of  possible  malignancy  in  a  healthy 
subject  may  not  revert  to  a  normal  condition  when  the 
disturbing  influence  is  removed. 

With  regard  to  the  difference  between  benign  and 
malignant  tumours,  which  some  think  are  such  as  to  divide 
them  entirely  into  classes  of  wholly  different  causation, 
it  may  be  said  that  much  late  work  does  not  support  this 
view.  The  fact  that  so  many  benign  growths  at  last  be- 
come malignant,  and  that  in  others  the  dividing  line  is 
so  obscure  that  the  histologist  and  pathologist  are  doubtful 
as  to  their  character,  obviously  suggests  that  a  further 
want  of  inhibition  or  the  increase  of  some  undue  stimula- 
tion may  end  in  malignancy.  A  few  authorities  argue 
that  even  benign  tumours  are  parasitic  in  their  origin. 
All  that  is  necessary  to  say  of  this  is  that  such  a  theory 
of  causation  appears  superfluous. 

Perhaps  the  best  defence  of  the  parasitic  theory  is 
that  of  D'Este  Emery  (Tumours,  1916).  It  is  well 
argued,  and  likely  to  convince  those  who  are  already 
inclined  to  take  the  view  supported.  Many  of  the 


272  APPENDIX  A 

arguments,  however,  will  not  bear  critical  examination. 
Emery  and  C.  P.  White  seem  to  think  that  a  continu- 
ously progressing  proliferation  of  malignant  tissue  de- 
mands a  continuously  increasing  irritant.  This  is  surely 
fallacious.  If  there  is  any  loss  of  balance  in  a  body  or 
any  other  structure,  less  and  less  power  is  needed  to 
cause  destruction.  The  Leaning  Tower  of  Pisa  should 
take  less  to  overthrow  it  now  than  when  it  was  built. 
If  the  theory  of  organic  restraint  has  any  basis  at  all, 
and  no  one  can  deny  that  it  is  very  firmly  based,  any 
such  disaster  as  malignancy  may  be  compared  to  a  breach 
made  in  a  dam.  To  remove  the  highest  part  will 
take  much  labour,  but  as  water  begins  to  flow  potential 
energy  becomes  kinetic,  and  the  whole  dam  goes.  In 
malignancy  we  need  not  posit  an  increasing  power,  for 
what  we  see  in  most  cases  is  a  decreasing  resistance,  as 
every  pathologist  recognizes  that  there  is  attempted 
repair  in  cancer,  even  though  it  mostly  fails.  Emery 
also  says,  "if  growth  is  very  rapid,  the  innermost  layer 
of  the  epithelium  may  find  it  easier  to  grow  downward 
into  the  tissues  than  up."  The  italics  are  mine.  The 
developmental  or  hostile  symbiotic  view  explains  such 
a  fact.  Indeed  it  shows  that  the  necessary  preliminary 
to  such  downward  growth  is  a  failure  of  the  connective 
tissues  which  is  plainly  demonstrated  by  the  pheno- 
mena accompanying  excessive  radiation.  With  irri- 
tated reacting  epithelium  it  is  not  "may"  but  "  must." 
According  to  D'Este  Emery  malignant  cells  frequently 
act  as  phagocytes,  which  suggests  they  have  some  power 
of  movement.  This  is  surely  a  forced  interpretation 
of  the  destructive  nature  of  malignant  cells.  That 
they  erode  tissue,  and  even  "  eat  away  bone " 
(Bland-Sutton)  is  true  enough.  But  we  do  not  call 


APPENDIX  A  273 

the  erosive  action  of  the  chorionic  trophoblast  phago- 
cytic,  and,  as  is  said  in  my  paper,  Handley  states  that  the 
multinuclear  cell  of  cancer  appears  when  met  with  resist- 
ance such  as  the  blood  possesses.  That  the  cells  "  move  " 
is  true,  but  their  movement,  which  can  be  measured,  is 
the  thrust  of  growth,  and  room  is  obtained  for  that  by 
the  cell  catalyst  and  mechanical  pressure. 

Emery's  views  upon  X-ray  phenomena  are  to  be 
found  in  less  than  a  dozen  lines.  He  remarks  that  the 
cracks  seen  in  X-ray  dermatitis  are  portals  of  infection. 
Such  infections  as  entert  hat  way  are,  however,  those 
which  can  be  proved  to  be  known  agents,  and  the  theory 
ignores  the  facts  that  long  before  cancer  is  recognizable 
there  is,  underlying  the  irritated  epithelium,  the  true 
pre-cancerous  stage  of  rarified  connective-tissue  elements. 
Would  the  author  affirm  that  continually  sterilized  hands 
exposed  for  long  periods  to  X-rays  would  not  become 
malignant  ? 

The  argument  based  upon  cage  infection  does  not 
carry  much  weight.  Captive  animals  are  already  in  an 
unnatural  condition.  It  is  notorious  that  their  general 
powers  of  resistance,  and  especially  their  powers  of 
repair,  are  weakened.  If  many  of  them  break  down  with 
malignant  disease,  what  is  the  most  that  can  be  logically 
inferred  ?  It  is  that  in  bad  conditions  and  poor  health 
some  infection,  if  it  is  an  infection,  may  cause  irrita- 
tion and  malignancy.  But  no  one  ever  denied  that 
infections  can  be  irritative  causes  of  epithelial  over- 
growth. 

Another  argument  is  that  malignant  tissue  growing 
alongside  normal  epithelium  shows  that  the  latter  has  a 
power  of  resistance.  It  is  difficult  to  see  what  is  in- 
ferred from  this.  It  is  to  be  expected  from  all  the 
18 


274  APPENDIX  A 

phenomena  that  to  begin  with  there  should  be  a  local 
breakdown  of  balance  at  the  point  of  irritation,  and 
the  spread  of  it  into  normal  epithelium  which  does 
not  immediately  revolt  is  no  more  surprising  than  that 
a  social  riot,  in  which  the  police  have  been  over- 
powered, should  spread,  and  yet  be  repelled  for  a  time 
in  areas  where  they  are  still  strong,  and  the  inhabitants 
have  not  been  excited  to  disorder.  It  is  no  vain 
metaphor  to  suggest  that  in  the  body  politic  the  police 
greatly  resemble  the  wandering  connective-tissue  cells 
of  any  organism. 

In  conclusion,  it  may  be  repeated,  and  even  in- 
sisted on,  that  only  the  developmental  and  endocrine 
theory  shows  any  reason  whatsoever  for  the  basal  facts 
of  malignancy,  that  is,  for  the  actual  undue  prolifer- 
tion  of  tissue  cells,  their  tendency  to  revert  to  an  em- 
bryonic character,  and  their  power  to  spread  beyond 
normal  boundaries,  while  the  biological  conception  of  the 
organism  as  a  federation  of  cell-colonies  working  in  a 
harmony,  which  is  the  result  of  "constraining  bodies," 
throws  a  brilliant  light  on  invasiveness  as  the  result  of 
a  failure  in  such  inhibitions. 

REFERENCES 

EMERY  D'EsTE. — "  Tumours,"  1916. 

SHATTOCK  and  DUDGEON. — "  Feeding  Experiments  with  Mouse- 
cancer,"  Proc.  Royal  Soc.  Med.,  vol.  x.  p.  35,  1916-17. 


APPENDIX    B 

THE  PR  RON  BUS  TERTIUS 

IT  seems  as  if  the  peroneus  terlius,  a  muscle  only 
found  in  the  human  organism  as  a  special  portion 
of  the  mechanism  for  preserving  the  structure  of  the 
foot  from  damage  in  orthogrades,  is  a  key  case  for  the 
opponents  of  transmission.  This  muscle  is  a  lesser 
opponent  of  the  tibialis  anticus,  which  is  found  well 
developed  in  simians  not  using,  or  only  rarely  using, 
the  upright  posture.  It  must,  then,  have  come  into 
existence  at  a  late  period  of  evolution.  This  is  em- 
phasized by  the  fact,  that  a  few  fibres  of  the  tertius  are 
occasionally  found  in  the  gorilla.  Is  such  a  direct 
adaptation  to  be  attributed  to  germinal  variations,  that 
is  to  say,  to  accident,  if  we  hold  that  the  germ- 
plasm  does  not  respond  magically  to  new  needs  ?  To  me 
this  seems  much  more  than  unlikely.  A  new  muscle 
has  arisen  at  a  special  point  of  strain  as  a  part  of  the 
set  of  muscles  preserving  the  arch  of  the  foot  and, 
as  we  see  from  pathology,  it  is  not  yet  doing  its  work 
with  complete  success.  It  is  still  imperfect.  If  such 
a  muscle  is  not  a  direct  adaptation  to  new  stresses 
words  have  ceased  to  have  any  meaning.  To  say  that 
a  single  muscle  cell  or  fibre  arose  from  a  "  spontaneous  " 
germinal  variation,  and  was  found  advantageous,  is  to 
make  a  mockery  of  mechanism.  But  if  it  is  assumed 


276  APPENDIX  B 

that  continual  stress  can  produce  such  a  muscle  reaction 
we  may  infer  that  continued  strain  would  reinforce  it. 
We  can,  in  fact,  prophesy  that  in  time  such  continued 
stresses  will  secure  adequate  response.  We  must  also 
infer  that,  when  a  set  of  muscles  is  used  in  a  new  position, 
as  was  the  case  when  the  upright  posture  was  adopted, 
opposing  muscles  are  no  longer  properly  counterbalanced. 
Some  new  muscle  is  called  for.  It  is  obvious  that  such 
new  strain  must  be  repeated  in  embryo  if  the  muscle 
is  to  increase,  since  new  muscles  fibres  do  not  come  into 
existence  later.  As  the  embryonic  tibialis  anticus  begins 
to  exert  a  pull,  these  stresses  are  felt  by  yet  undifferenti- 
ated  cells,  the  parents  of  muscle  cells,  which  are  capable 
of  becoming  muscle  if  so  stressed.  Without  such  em- 
bryonic strains  the  tissues  would  have  altered  in  some 
other  manner.  If  language  is  not  to  be  tortured  into 
something  which  serves  no  function,  we  must  come  to 
the  conclusion  that  new  stresses  are  repeated  during 
development,  and  exert  a  morphogenetic  influence  upon 
the  undifferentiated  tissues.  If  this  is  so  transmission  is 
no  longer  guesswork. 


MARCUS  TERENTIUS  VARRO 

AS  this  passage  seems  little  known  I  have  tran- 
scribed it  here,  although  it  is  an  uncertain,  and 
perhaps  corrupt,  text. 

De  Re  Rustica.  Book  i.,  chap.  xii.  "  Sin  cogare 
secundum  flumen  sedificare,  curandum  ne  adversam  earn 
(villam)  ponas :  hieme  enim  fiet  vehementer  frigida  et 
aestate  non  salubris.  Animadvertum  etiam,  siqua 
erunt  loca  palustria,  et  propter  easdem  caussas,  et  quod 
(arescunt)  crescunt  animalia  qusedam  minuta,  quae  non 
possunt  oculi  consequi,  et  per  aera  intus  in  corpus  per 
os  et  nares  perveniunt  atque  efficiunt  difficiles  morbos." 

Fundanius,  "  Quid  potero  "  inquit,  "  facere  si  istius 
modi  mi  fundus  hereditati  obvenerit,  quominus  pesti- 
lentia  noceat  ?  " 

"  Istuc  vel  ego  possum  respondere,"  inquit  Agrius : 
"  vendas  quot  assitus  possis,  aut,  si  nequeas,  relinquas. 
.  .  .  Praetera  quod  a  sole  toto  die  illustratur,  salubrior 
est  et  bestiolae  siquse  prope  nascuntur  et  inferuntur,  aut 
efflantur  aut  aritudine  cito  pereunt." 

"  But  if  you  must  build  beside  a  river  you  must  take 
care  that  you  do  not  put  the  house  to  face  it  :  for  in 
winter  it  will  be  excessively  cold,  and  in  summer  un- 
healthy. For  the  same  reasons  you  have  to  be  on  your 


277 


278  APPENDIX  C 

guard  against  marshy  places,  and  also  because  (as  they 
dry)  minute  animals  are  engendered  there  which  cannot 
be  detected  by  the  eyes,  and  these  borne  by  the  air  get 
into  the  body  through  mouth  and  nostrils,  and  cause 
diseases  difficult  to  get  rid  of." 

Fundanius  said :  "  What  should  I  do  to  avoid  the  evil 
of  infection  if  I  were  to  inherit  an  estate  of  that  kind  ?  " 

"  I  can  tell  you  that,"  replied  Agrius.  "  Sell  it  for 
what  you  can  get,  and  if  you  can't  sell,  leave  it.  ... 
Besides,  the  house  is  healthier  for  being  shone  upon  all 
day,  and  if  any  animalcules  breed  and  are  carried  there, 
they  are  either  blown  away  or  quickly  perish  through 
the  dryness  (of  the  air)." 


INDEX 


Abderhalden,  Emil.  on  immunity,  132. 
Acquired   characteristics,    death    itself 

acquired,  19,  201. 
Accelerator  fibres,  106  seq. 
Acromegaly,  23,  40. 

unilateral,  31. 

Adami,  J.  G.,  habit  of  tissues,  27,  35. 
Adaptation,  a  process  of  repair,  72. 
Adrenalin,  and  cowardice,  241. 

effect  on  intestine,  191. 

in  danger,  200. 

Alcheringa  and  the  Golden  Age,  147. 
Alliances,  forced,  161. 
Analogy,  incomplete  induction,  5,  6, 

.X7- 

discovery  of  analogies  in  science,  7- 
Anaphylaxis,  suggested  explanation  of, 

139. 
Aneurisms  and  the  heart,  73. 

repair  of,  76. 

Animism  and  vitalism,  224. 
Anthropology,  as  mental  training,  204, 

222. 

neglect  of  by  psychologists,  24. 
Aortic  stenosis,  heart  weight  in,  75. 
Apolant,  H.,  on  mouse  cancer,  50. 
Arches,  stress,  failure  and  repair  of,  68. 
Army  as  an  organism,  239. 
Arsenic,  as  a  provoker  of  lipoid,  136. 
Atkinson,  Primal  Law  of,  150. 
Auerbach's  Plexus,  in. 
Avoidance,  150,  152,  154. 

Bacteria,  iron-using,  190. 

manganese-using,  200. 
Bacteriology,  nomenclature  of,  129. 
Bainbridge,  W.  S.,  on  cancer,  34. 
Balance,  in  construction,  30. 
Balneology  and  water-spirits,  2IO. 
Bashford,  cancer  and  immunity,  268. 
Bathing,  not  natural,  204. 

to  get  rid  of  spirits,  216. 
Bayliss,   Prof.  \V.   M.,   "accidental" 
enzymes,  135. 

shock,  99. 

water  movement  in  muscle,  1 10. 


Becquerel  rays,  45. 

Bell,  Charles,  muscular  sense,  117. 

Belogolovy,    G.   A.,    Frog   Pelobates, 

193- 

Benign  growths,  271. 
Bernard,     Claude,     on    disease     and 

biology,  66. 
Betz,  cells  of,  235. 
Biceps,  fibres  of,  104. 
Binbinga,  and  necrophagy,  162,  165. 
Biologic  conceptions  of  organisms,  22. 
Biologic  parallels,  use  of,  15. 
Birth  in  mammalians,  185. 
Bitches,  mammary  cancer  in,  47. 
Bland-Sutton,  Sir  J.,  cancer  erosion, 
272. 

chorionic  trophoblast,  36,  85. 

femoral  sarcoma,  51. 

glandular  pantheon,  31. 

pathology  and  biology,  66. 
Blood  and  cancer,  53. 

in  history  of  lustration,  205. 
Blood-cells,  as  germ-cells,  185. 
Bourne,  Prof.  G.  C.,  advocate  of  trans- 
mission, 90. 

Bramann,  on  the  scrotum,  82. 
Breakdown  and  repair,  67. 
Browning  on  immunity,  139. 
Budding  and  emigration,  15. 
Bundle  of  His,  rate  of  conduction,  97. 
Bunyip,  208. 
Butler,  S.,  Unconscious  Memory,  194. 

Cage  cancer,  273. 

Campbell,     Dr.      Harry,     inter-tribal 

warfare,   169. 
Cancer,  theories  of,  32  seq. 

and  cartilage,  269. 

and  castration,  47. 

and  gastric  ulcers,  48. 

atruphic,  42. 

cage,  273. 

cells,  as  phagocytes,  272. 

cells,  polymorphism  of,  38. 

constitutional  theory,  32. 

developmental  disease,  a,  58. 


279 


280 


Cancer,  familial,  270. 

foods,  34. 

houses,  41. 

infection,  18,  32,  265  seq. 

irritation,  36. 

multi-nucleated  cell  in,  273. 

repair  in,  272. 

social  analogues  for,  21. 

suggestions  for  research,  57. 

Thiersch  on,  34,  35. 

transplantation  of,  270. 

Waldeyer  on,  34,  35. 
Cannibalism,  157. 

M'Cullough  on,  146. 

modern  necrophagy,  1 66. 

moral  reprobation  of,  145, 

once  universal,  178. 

Spencer  and  Gillen,  162. 

Toussenel  on,  168. 
Carcharias,  shark's  heart,  III. 
Carcinoma.     See  Cancer. 
Cardiac  vagus  and  inhibition,  94,  96, 

113  «?.,  119,  125. 
Cardiograms,  interpretation  of,  123. 
Cartilage  and  cancer,  269. 
Castration  and  cancer,  47. 
Catalysts,  loss  of,  in  disease,  19- 

and  manganese,  200. 

as  tools,  12,  199. 

in  old  age,  19. 

new  combinations  in,  190. 
Cathedral,  principles  of  evolution  seen 

in,  69. 
Causes,  real  and  false,  267. 

irritation  as  "cause,"  267. 
Cell,  senescent,  197. 

a  great  social  aggregate  using  tools, 

197. 

Champy,  tissue  growth  in  vitro,  42. 
Character  and  disease,  82. 
Chellean  art,  149. 
Child,  C.  M.,  on  early  degeneration, 

18. 

Senescence  and  f!ejuvenesence,  196. 
Cholera  and  holy  water,  224. 
Chorion-epithelioma,  33,  54,  86. 
Chromosomes  and  variation,  188. 

Catalytic  tools  in,  1 86. 
Classificatory  system,  158  seq. 

origin  of,  158,  161,  165. 
Cleanliness  not  natural,  204. 
Coley's  Fluid,  reasons  of  usual  failure 

of,  50. 

Colloidal  chemistry,  neglect  of,  141. 
Colour  produced  by  peroxidases,  136. 
Cohnheim,  "rests "in  cancer,  27,  35. 
Columella  on  dangerous  insects,  125. 


Committees,  mentality  of,  240. 
Complexes,  hidden  racial,  155. 

as  myth,  156. 
Conditioned  reflexes  in  inhibition,  95. 

See  Pavlov. 
Connective    tissue,    influence    of,    on 

epithelium,  43. 
and  malignity,  40. 
Consciousness,   adaptational  response, 

235- 

as  reflex,  1 1 8. 

mystery  of,  228. 

nature  of,  232. 
Conservatism  in  cells,  194. 
Construction    principles   of  universal, 

64. 

Co-ordination  of  knowledge,  4. 
Corpora  cohibentia,  268. 
Corporations,  mentality  of,  240. 
Cortex,  number  of  neurons,  229. 
Cowardice  an  adrenal  failure,  241. 
Cremaster,    the   result    of   stress    and 

repair,  78. 

Crowds,  nature  of,  246  seq. 
Cunningham,  Prof.  J.  T. ,  advocate  of 
transmission,  90,  198. 

work  on  hormones,  II. 
Cures,  cancer,  use  of,  49. 
Cushny,  Prof.  A.  R.,  on  digitalis,  114. 

Darier  and  Wolbarth,  44. 
Darwin,   Charles,  pangenes  determin- 
ants, 13. 

origin  of  variations,  66. 

spontaneous  variations,  Ji. 

unfavourable  variations,  13. 
Death  an  acquired  characteristic,  201. 
Death-rate   and    provoked   immunity, 

138. 

Dendy,   Prof.    A.,   advocate  of  trans- 
mission, 90. 

Dental  disease  and  mastication,  206. 
Dermatitis,  X-ray,  43. 
Determinants,  catalytic,  13. 

determining  nothing,  193. 

hormones,  etc.,  91. 
Development,     embryonic     and    pre- 

embryonic,  186. 
Diastole,  active  nature  of,  97. 

negative  pressure  of,  1 08. 

"rebound  "of,  108. 
Dicrotism,  121. 

Dietetics  and  food-taboos,  224. 
Digitalis,  action  of,  114  saj. 

Cushny  on,  1 14. 

poisonous  stage,  115. 
Dilatation,  cardiac,  in  evolution,  77. 


INDEX 


281 


Disasters,    and   repair   as  reaction  to, 

70. 
Disease,  function  of,  in  evolution,  64, 

65- 

morphogenetic  factor,  90. 

organic  and  functional,  63. 
Discovery  and  freed  energy,  235. 
Drainage,  nerve,  97. 
Driesch,  entelechy  of,  62. 

rudimentary  psychoids,  198. 
Duchenne,  articular  sense,  117. 
Durante,  in  history  of  cancer,  27,  35- 

Ebarth,  bands  of,  74. 

Ehrlich,  P.,  on  mouse  cancer,  50. 

side-chain  theory,  128. 
Einstein,  42. 
Elephant,  lung  of,  88. 
Ellis,  Mr.  Havelock,  205. 
Embryo  a  parasite,  85. 
Embryomas,  52. 

Embryonic  tissue,  invasiveness  of,  38. 
Emery,  Dr.  D'Este,  on  tumours,  271  seq. 
Emigration  as  budding,  15. 

in  ships,  15. 

Emotions,  highest,  physiology  of,  234. 
End -plates  and  energy,  104. 
Energetics,  universal  working  of,  9. 
Entelechy  of  Driesch,  62. 
Environment,  internal,  199. 

and  stability  of  type,  177. 
Enzymes  as  immune  bodies,  131. 

nature  and  working  of,  149. 
Epikouros,  in  N.  Africa,  257 
Epilepsy,  31. 
Epithelium,  germinal,  185. 

influence  on  connective  tissue,  43. 

parent  tissue  of  true  glands,  41. 

universality  of,  in  organism,  40. 
Erysipelas  and  cancer,  50. 
Evolution,  continuous,  77. 

rate  of,  177. 

undiscovered  factors  of,  147. 
Exogamy,  Frazer  on,  1 59. 
Explanation,  nature  of,  8,  24,  128,  189, 

266. 
Exudations,  in  evolution,  72. 

Failure,  a  means  of  progress,  65,  8l. 

and  repair  in  evolution,  175. 
Farmaij'ion,  257  seq, 
Farmer,    Prof.    J.    B.,    nutrition    and 

immunity,  133. 
Femoral  sarcoma,  51. 
Ferrier,  Sir  David,  work  on  brain,  229. 
Fibrillation,  auricular,  102. 
Filehne  on  action  of  arsenic,  136. 


Filter  passers,  in  sarcoma,  267. 

Fleets  as  organs,  201. 

Fletcher,  Horace,  swallowing  reflexes, 

205. 

Fcetal  bones,  grafts  of,  268. 
Food,  factors  accessory,  as  "  tools,"  13. 

as  poison,  131. 

taboos,  and  dietetics,  224. 
Fossa  ovalis  in  mammal,  75. 
Fowls  and  sarcoma,  47,  267. 
Frazer,  Sir  J.  G.  classificatory  system, 
189. 

Psyches  Task,  223. 

on  savage  logic,  148. 

Thargelian  Rites,  260. 

work  by,  24. 

Freemason,  origin  of  word,  258. 
Freud  and  racial  complexes,  155. 
Function  and  structure,  68. 

Gallon,  Sir  F.,  eugenics  and  disease,  19. 
Gaskell,  W.  H.,  and   the    augmentor 
fibres,  112. 

work  on  brain,  229. 
Gastric  ulcers  and  malignancy,  48. 
Germ-cells,   cases    of    early    isolation, 

185,  190. 
Germ-plasm,  the  "constant"  in,  201. 

theory  of,  61. 

Germ -tracks  of  little  importance,  188. 
Germinal  epithelium,  185. 
Gestational  immunity,  85. 

Abderhalden,  Emil,  on,  132. 
Giant  cells,  nature  of  nuclei,  54. 
Giant  molecules,  129. 
Glands,  ductless,  as  regulators,  30. 
Gley,  harmozones  of,  31. 
Gomme,  Sir  Lawrence,  151. 
Gorilla,    evolving  perottens   tertius  in, 

275- 

Gothic  architecture,  stresses  and  failures 
in,  67. 

Granulations  and  sarcoma,  40. 

Graphs,  reading  of,  123. 

Graves'  Disease,  23. 

Green,  C.  E. ,  cancer  and  smoke  pro- 
ducts, 35. 

Grief,  a  "spirit"  attack,  221. 

Growth,  due  to  many  agents,  91. 

Guanche  rain  charms,  214. 

Haberlandt,   G.,  views  of  cell  change, 

196. 

Haddon,  Dr.,  151. 
Hundley,    Mr.    Sampson,    multinuclear 

cancer  cells  and  blood,  54- 
Ilartog,  Prof.  Marcus,  on  mitosis,  14. 


282 


INDEX 


Harvey,  William,  circulation  of  blood, 
8. 

Head,  Dr.  Henry,  work  on  brain,  229. 
Heart,  and  aneurisms,  73. 

and  organ-forming  substances,  199. 

cardiac  flutter,  102. 

columnse  carnere,  etc.,  73- 

continued  avolution  of,  77. 

fibrillation,  auricular,  102. 

moulding  of,  75. 

muscular  fibres  in,  75- 

new  fibres  arising  in  embryo,  78. 
Heart-block,  74- 
Hernaman-Johnson,  Dr.  F.,  cancer  and 

X-rays,  45. 

Herring,  P.  F.,  thyroid  feeding,  124. 
His,  Bundle  of,  74. 

conducting  power,  123. 
Histology  and  heredity,  185. 
Homo  Eoanthropus,  149. 
Ilorsley,    Sir   Victor,   work   on   brain, 

229. 
Hostile  symbiosis,  in  organisms,  25. 

in  school  and  army,  244. 
Human  flesh  as  iood,  169. 
Hunter,  John,  cremaster,  78. 

on  repair,  72. 

tunica  vaginalis,  82. 

work  of,  229. 

Hunting  and  cannibalism,  168. 
Huxley,  T.   H.,  on  consciousness,  66, 
229. 

as  stimulator,  233 

Hydalid  mole  and  reaction  against,  86. 
Hydraulic  presses  and  cardiac  muscle, 

no. 

Hymen,  205. 
llypcrpituitarism,  in  malignancy,  56. 

Imagination,  use  of,  in  science,  26,  144. 
Immune  bodies  as  catalysts,  130. 
Immunity,  as  basis  of  life,  139. 

by  provoked  catalysts,  132. 

gestational,  85,  132. 

mental,  227. 
Immunization,  a  normal  process,  136. 

social  illustrations  of,  136. 
Incest  and  exogamy,  145,  157,  i$9- 
Indians,  Thompson  River,  220. 
Individual,   any  "closed  system"  an, 

29. 

Induction,  value  of,  19. 
Infection    theory    of    cancer,    32,    46, 

265,  seq, 
Inhibition,  94. 

and  substituted  action,  125. 
k    as  "  influence,"  96. 


Inhibition,  by  cardiac  vagus,  a  shock 
effect,  113. 

Cushny,  A.  R.,  on,  114. 

illustrations  of,  119. 

Lister,  Joseph,  on,  116. 

Thomas,  H.  O.,  on,  116. 
Internal  secretions,  power  of,  191. 
Invasiveness  and  embryonic  tissues,  38. 
Irregularity  of  heart,  youthful,  105. 

Jackson,  Dr.  Hughlings,  on  mind  and 

brain,  229. 

Japanese  wrestlers  and  testes,  83. 
Jealousy,  modern  paternal,  152. 
Jevons,  W.  S.,  inductions  only  probable, 

19. 
Joints,     comparative     immunity     from 

malignancy,  52. 

Kammerer,  experimental  transmission, 

62,  198. 

Kangri  cancer,  33. 
Keekwillie  holes,  220. 
Keith,    Prof.    Arthur,    on    discoveries, 
relative  greatness  of,  149. 

heart  muscle,  109. 

hormones  and  racial  types,  12. 

modern  skull,  146. 

negro  in  U.S.A.,  39. 

peritoneal  adhesions,  88. 

rate  of  evolution,  177. 

Wolff's  Law  re-stated,  72- 
Keith-Flack  node,  in. 
Kettle,  E.  H.,  polymorphisms  of  cancer 

cells,  38. 
Knox,  Dr.  Robert,  Becquerel  rays  and 

fibrosis,  45. 

Knowledge  as  catalytic,  202. 
Krapina  and  Neanderthal  man,  171. 

Laboratory  results,  fallacies  of,  94,  98. 

Lack,  Dr.  Lambert,  on  periodontilis, 
267. 

Lactase  in  dogs,  133. 

Lang,  Andrew,  Social  Origins,  151. 

Language  of  bacteriologists,  129. 

Laws,  general  nature  of,  J. 

Lazarus-Barlow,  influence  of  radiation, 
44. 

Lazy  tongs  and  heart  muscle,  109. 

Least  Action,  Principle  of,  in  Evolu- 
tion, 192. 

Le  Bon,  Gustave,  Psychologic  des  Foules, 
246. 

Leucoplakia,  failure  of  connective 
tissue  in,  46. 

Life,  economy  of  construction,  30. 


INDEX 


283 


Life  and  growth,  law  of,  141. 
Likeness  and  unlikeness,  8. 

in  parents  and  offspring,  193. 
Lipoids,  as  complement,  134. 

and  phagocytes,  135. 
Lister,  Joseph,  on  inhibition,  1 16. 
Logic  of  discovery,  9. 

of  savages,  Frazer  on,  148. 
Luciani  on  cardiac  vagus,  93. 
Lyell,  Sir  Charles,  25. 
Lymph  nodes  and  metastatic  growths, 

46. 
Lymphoid  tissue,  functions  of,  46. 

MacBride,   Prof.   E.  W.,   advocate  of 

transmission,  90,  198. 
M'Dougall,  W.,  drainage  theory,  118. 
Mach,  E.,  on  explanation,  128. 
Mackenzie,  Sir  J.,  origins  of  disease, 
19. 

slowing  of  heart,  106, 

youthful  irregularity  of  heart,  105. 
Maine,    Sir   H.    S.,   local    contiguity, 
effect  of,  164. 

study     of     jurisprudence,     analogy 

in,  6. 
Malignancy,  conclusions  as  to,  58. 

a  failure  of  balance,  47. 

and  the  endocrines,  39. 

no  single  cause  in,  28. 

social  analogues,  21,  39. 
Mamma?,  origin  of,  87. 
Mammalians     "born"     three     times, 

185. 

Mastication,  206. 
Mastitis,  chronic,  and  prostatic  tablets, 

191. 

Materialism,  227. 
Mathematical  reasoning,  189. 
Mathematics    and    biological    factors, 

200. 

Medicine,  ancient  and  modern,  225. 
Memory,  232. 
Mesentery,  fixation  of,  88. 
Metabolism,  social,  197 
Metazoa,  pathological  origin  of,  84. 
Method,  logical,  of  discovery,  9. 
Mendelian  variations,  63. 
Midsummer  Day,  209. 
Mill,  J,  S.,  on  analogy,  5,  6,  17. 
Mimicry,  small  variations  in,  89. 
Mind,  biochemical  reactions  of,  223. 

the  primitive,  207. 
Mitosis  in  a  colony,  1 7. 
Mitral  valve,  anatomy  of,  74. 
Mnemes  of  Ilering-Scmun,  194. 
Moderator  band,  73. 


Moore,  Prof.  B.,  French  bacteriological 
work,  130. 

and  Whitley,  on  immunity,  130. 

on  the  Teutonic  mind,  128. 
Morality  and  the  past,  145. 
Morgenroth  and  Ascher,  reversible  im- 
mune reactions,  139. 
Morphogenetic  repair  in  evolution,  90. 
Multinucleated  cells  in  cancer,  54. 
Murphy,  J.  B.,  destruction  of  lymphoid 

tissue,  46. 

Murray,  Prof.  Gilbert,  on  Greek  migra- 
tion, 144. 

on  the  Pharmakos,  255,  260. 
Muscle  action,  independence  of,  122. 

and  nerve,  257- 

cardiac,  75,  109. 

deformation  processes,  97. 

gastric,  origin  of,  80. 

in  scrotum,  83. 

origin  of,  76. 

refractory  period  of,  96. 
Myxcedema,  23. 

Nageli,  Von,  on  internal  environment, 

199. 

Nahak,  218. 

Napier  of  Merchistoun,  149. 
Natural  Selection  and  variation,  198. 
Naturalness  an  unknown  concept  among 

savage  races,  207. 

Neanderthal   man,   brain   capacity  of, 
148. 

and  Krapina,  171. 

disappearance  of,  170. 

teeth  of,  171. 

Necrophagy,  162,  165,  166. 
Neo-Darwinians  and  orthodoxy,  183. 
Nerves  and  trigger  action,  102. 
Neurons,  cortical,  number  of,  229. 

life  of,  245. 

Non-placentals  and  the  fetus,  86. 
Nuclear    contents     and     transmission, 

189. 

Nucleins,  195. 
Nucleus,  "life"  in,  195. 

as  work-  and  tool-shop,  14,  54,  194, 
195. 

of  test-bearing  protozoon,  196. 
Nutrition  a  case  of  immunity,  139. 

Old  age,  197. 

Onslow  on  rabbits'  colour  peroxidases, 

136. 

Oocytes,  186. 

Opportunism  of  stressed  organisms,  79. 
Opsoriins,  non-existence  of,  135. 


284 


INDEX 


Optic  vesicle,  Lewis's  experiment,  199. 
Organ-forming  substances,  198. 
Organisms,  biologic  conception  of,  184. 

as  republics,  29. 
Orthodoxy  in  science,  184. 
Osier,  Sir  William,  on  scientific  neo- 
logisms, 127. 

Osmosis  in  cardiac  muscle,  97. 
Osteomegalies,  55. 

Pace-maker,  inertia  and  the  vagus,  113. 
Paget,  Sir  J.,  constitutional  theory  of 

cancer,  32. 

Paget's  Disease,  fibrosis  in,  42. 
Panniculus,  primitive,  muscle  fibres  in 

scrotum,  83. 

Paraffins  and  mental  valencies,  253. 
Parasite  (supposed)  of  cancer,  270. 

in  X-ray  cancer,  270. 
Parathyroids,  31,  191. 
Parsimony,  law  of,  in  science,  188. 
Pathological  variations,  64. 
Pathologists     and      the      sociological 

method,  10. 
Pavlov,  J.  P.,  conditioned  reflexes,  87, 

118,  222,  229,  231. 
Pelobates  bred  in  parental  body  cavity, 

193- 

Peritoneal  adhesions,  88. 

Peroneus  tertius,  fibres  of,  in  gorilla, 

275. 
and  transmission,  275. 

Peyer's  Patches  in  typhoid,  134. 

Phagocytes  and  lipoids,  135. 

Physical  laws,  ultimate,  189. 

Physician  as  magician,  209. 

Piltdown  man,  146. 

Pithecanthropus  erectus,  177. 

Pituitary,  possible  function  of,  in  sar- 
coma, 55. 
and  growth,  31. 

Placenta,  a  compromise  growth,  86 

Planck,  theory  of  Quanta  and  critical 
periods,  177. 

Politics,  modern,  a  chapter  in  anthro- 
pology,  179. 

Politics  and  physiology,  I. 

Pre-cancerous  stages,  46. 

Pre-embryonic  cell-history,  186. 

Primal  Law,  by  Atkinson,  150. 

Proliferation  in  malignancy,  38. 

Proof  and  illustration,  14. 

Prostate  and  chronic  mastitis,  191. 

Protoplasm  and  "  tools,"  12. 

Protozoan  tests  and  nucleus,  196. 

Provoked  catalysts,  133. 

Psycho-analysis,  Freudian,  155. 


Psychoids,  rudimentary,  198. 
Psychologic  des  foules,  246. 
Pyramidal  tract  and  long  paths,  232. 
Pysemsky  on  adrenalin  effects,  191. 
Public  schools,  training  in,  242  seq. 

Racial  types,  Keith  on,  12. 
Radiology  as  factor  of  discovery,  27. 
Radium  in  cancer,  45. 
Rain-makers,  213. 
Reciprocal  innervation,  107. 
Reflex  response  to  orders,  250. 
Reflexes,    conditioned,    87,    118,   222, 

229,  231. 

Rejuvenescence  in  malignancy,  49. 
Repair  in  evolution,  10,  65. 

general  laws  of,  71. 

as  cause  of  variation,  198. 
Reproductive  cell,  important  stages  of, 

187. 

Republics  in  organisms,  29. 
"Resistance"     to    fresh    stimulation, 

233- 
Rests  of  Cohnheim,  27. 

of  Ribbert,  35,  140. 
Reversible  reactions,  social  illustration 

of,  140. 

Ribbert,  post-natal  "rests,"  35. 
Rise  of  the  Greek  Epic,  144. 
Round-celled  sarcoma,  52. 
Rous,  Peyton,  fowl  sarcoma,  267. 
Rushbrooke,      Prof.,      re     J.     Lister, 

116. 
Russ,  Dr.  Sydney,  on  lymphocytosis  in 

cancer,  45. 

Sachs  on  reversible  immune  reactions, 

139- 

St.  John's  Day,  208. 
Salmon,  malignancy  in,  34. 
Sanitation  and  magic,  218. 
Sarcoma,    deadliness   of    round-celled, 
52. 

and  granulations,  40. 

disease  of  youth,  41. 

femoral,  57. 

filter-passers  in,  267. 

in  fowls,  47,  267. 

induction  of  so-called,  5°- 

in  old  age,  55. 

round-celled  and  granulation  tissue, 

40. 

Scar-tissue,  48. 
Science,  comparative  study  of,  203. 

and  explanation,  10. 

narrow  views  of,  64. 

national  neglect  of,  9. 


INDEX 


285 


Schafer,  Prof.  E.  A.,  adrenalin  and  in- 
testinal muscle,  191. 

cardiac  muscle  fibres,  109. 

histology  of  ova  and  sperm-cells,  186. 
Scrotum,  a  badly  repaired  failure,  82. 

of  the  boar,  82. 

Second  wind  and  the  tricuspid,  77. 
Senescence,  C.  M.  Child's  work,  196. 

loss  of  catalytic  tools,  197. 

nature  of,  48. 
Shaken  troops,  251. 
Shark,  heart  of,  in. 
Shattock,  S.  G.,  on  embryomas,  52. 

and  co-workers,  cancer  experiments, 

268,  269. 

Sherrington,  O.  S.,  on  inhibition,  116. 
Ship  as  zygote,  1 5. 
Shock,  nature  of,  IOO. 

results  of,  99. 

social  analogies,  ioo,  105. 
Skull,   modern,  in   Pleistocene   times, 
146. 

changes  in,  147. 
Smith,  Robertson,  24. 
Social  analogies  for  shock,  100,  105. 
Social  and  nuclear  changes,  195. 
"Social"  disturbances    in   organisms, 

23- 
Societies    as     "closed    systems,"     or 

organisms,  9. 
Sociology,     physiological    method    in, 

2,  6. 
Soldiers,  and  intellect  evolved  by  war, 

?73- 

Specialism,  abuse  of,  3. 
Specificity,  either   "tools,"  or   magic, 

190. 
Spencer  and  Gillen  on  inter-class  tribal 

necrophagy,  162. 
Spencer,  Herbert,  Sociological  Method, 

6. 

"Transcendental  Physiology,"  5. 
Spencer,  Dr.  H.B.,  on  ovarian  tumours, 

37- 

Spermatoblasts,  descent  of,  186. 
Sperm-cells,  development  of,  187. 

in  malignancy,  38. 
Spinoza,  reference  to,  146. 
Sponge-work,     primary     vascular,     in 

primitive  ventricle,  76. 
Spontaneous  variations,  71. 
Stability  of  type,  177. 
Staff  of  army,  240. 

Starling,  Prof.  E.  II.,  on  cell  division 
and  time  element,  90,  193,  196. 

hormones.  191. 

Law  of  the  Heart,  65. 


Starling,  Prof.  E.  H.,  on  organisms  as 

"new  creations,"  90. 
Static  elements  in  civilization,  197. 
Stefani,  on  cardiac  vagus,  109. 
Sterility  and  bathing,  219. 
Stomach,  dilatation  and  repair  of,  80. 

evolution  of,  79,  80. 
Strain  and  muscle  evolution,  275. 
Stress,  reaction  to,  a  principle  of  con- 
struction, 67. 

Structure,  main  factors  of,  91. 
Substrates  and  enzymes,  133. 
Surface  tension  in  muscle,  97. 
Sutton,  Dr.  H.  G.,  77. 
Symbiosis,  hostile,  29,  101. 

and  reversible  reactions,  140. 

key  to  malignancy,  30,  32. 

political,  30. 

training,  use  in,  244. 
Synapse,  "fused"  in  manias,  233. 
Synaptic  blocks,  233. 

Tachycardia,  meaning  of,  93. 
Tcenia  solium  and  cannibalism,  179. 
Testes  and  growth,  31. 

tunica  vag-tnah'sof,  82. 
Testiconda,     and     cremaster     muscle, 

78. 

Thargelian  Festival,  Frazer  on,  260. 
Theologians  and  reaction,  227. 
Thiersch  on  cancer,  34,  35. 
Thinking  as  neuronal  tonus,  230. 
Thomas,  H.  O.,  on  inhibition,  116. 
Thompson  River  Indians,  220. 
Thought,  possibility   of  measurement, 

234- 
Time,    relativity    of,    in   reproduction, 

192. 

Tolerance  as  immunity,  136. 
Tools,  catalytic,  12 

and  organic  complexity,  199. 

and  protoplasm,  12. 

chromosomatic  in  germ-cell,  186. 
Toussenel  on  cannibalism,  168. 
Tower  and  transmission,  62. 
Toxicity  of  foods,  131. 
Transmission,  mechanism  of,  II. 

by  tool-adoption,  16. 

use  of,  by  men  of  science,  189. 
Trial  and  error  in  evolution,  67. 
Tribal  spirit,  24. 
Tribes,  subdivision  of,  158. 
Tricuspid   valve,  functional    incompet- 
ence of,  75,  77. 

and  second  wind,  77. 
Trigger  action  of  nerves,  102. 
Trochilida?,  colour  in,  169. 


286 


INDEX 


Trophoblasts,  erosive  action  of,  37. 

in  gestation,  54. 
Trypsin,  origin  of,  133. 
Tubal  dilatation,  8l. 

pregnancies,  86. 
Tuberculosis,  origin  of  human,  167. 

possible  influence  on  human  charac- 
ter, 82. 

Tylor,  E.  B.,  24. 
Typhoid,  134. 

relapse  in,  138. 

Uexkiill,  J.  Von.,  on  science  and  order, 

125. 
Uterus,    evolutionary    history    of,    85 

seq. 
a  tubal  dilatation  repaired,  86. 

Vagus,  cardiac,  as  "depressant,"  98. 
as  part  of  autonomic,  1 12. 
real  function  of,  105,  107. 
intestinal  and  cardiac,  112. 
Variation  as  characteristics,  cause   of, 

89. 

definitely  caused,  78. 
during  embryonic  life,  198. 
minute,  62,  188. 
social,  in  late  war,  20. 
unfavourable,  13,  63,  70. 
Varro,  M.  T.,  on  malaria,  125. 

De  Re  Rustica,  277. 
Vaso-dilator  centre  the  vagus  centre, 

in. 
Vegetarians     and     Neanderthal     man, 

171,  172. 
Verworn,  Max,  and  the  giant  molecule, 

129. 

Vested   interests   as  slowers  of   meta- 
bolism, 197. 
Vourmak,  Turkic  word,  256. 


Waldeyer  on  cancer,  34,  35. 
War,  a  factor  in  evolution,  20,  167. 
Warfare,  in  the  body,  30. 
and  hunting,  168. 
and  immunity,  138. 
and  variation,  2. 
Washing  at  birth,  205. 
Water,  and  menstruous  women,  212. 
nature  of,  207. 
spirits  and  saints,  208. 
Weakening  by  vagus,  121. 
Weber  brothers,  104. 
Weinland,    Ernst,    on   cane-sugar  and 

invertin,  132. 

Weismann,  A.,  and  modern  endocrino- 
logy, 1 88. 

as  pure  theorist,  200. 
translation  of  his  terms   into  known 

factors,  189. 

Weismannism  modified,  II. 
Wells,  sacred,  211. 
Williams,    Sir  John,    pregnancies   and 

ovarian  tumours,  37. 
Wilson,  germ-cell  histology,  186. 
Wilson,    R.    N.    M'Nair,    meaning   of 

tachycardia,  93. 

Wolff,  Julius,  on  bone-growth,  64,  65. 
Wolffs  Law,  71. 

re-stated  by  Keith,  72. 
Words,  sound  signals  to  reflexes,  231. 
Wrightson,  Sir  T. ,  Theory  of  Hearing, 

103. 

Writing   as    graphic   verbal    reactions, 
230. 

X-ray  cancer,  27  seq.,  273. 
dermatitis,  43. 

Youthful  cardiac  arrhythmia,  105. 
Zygote,  combined  catalysts  of,  187. 


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